The market took a second consecutive day today to take inventory of status following its best month in four years and a series of new reports, both good and bad, but enough bad to send the Dow down 92 points in the final two hours of trading.  The good:  Chevron, Exxon, Abb Vie, LinkedIn, and Expedia all turned in good Q3 results.  Also the CBOE volatility index fell about 40%, its largest decline ever.  The bad: CVS and Genworth Financial turned in disappointing reports.  Valeant Pharmaceuticals continued to get stomped, today alone losing more than another 15% putting it at a 15 month low.  For the month the Dow is up an amazing 8.5%.  Today's slightly above recent averages volume was 7.4 billion shares.  Eyes now are on next Friday's employment numbers.

Note:  I finally did find GDP info today that was indeed published yesterday as promised. It was no mystery why its exposure was so scanty - the news was neither good nor bad.  The economy in Q3 grew by 1.5% which is a whole lot better than the forecast of a 5% contraction but a whole lot worse than Q2's robust growth.  Expecting a much better Q4, the market was unfazed.  Still, it's either good news or bad news depending on which side of the fence you're on.

Markets | Fri Oct 30, 2015 6:34pm EDT

Stocks slip but post best month in four years

BY LEWIS KRAUSKOPF

DJ:  17,663.54  -92.26       NAS:  5,053.75  -20.53         S&P:  2,079.36  -10.05

(Reuters)  U.S. stock indexes finished with their strongest monthly performances in four years on Friday, even as they dipped for the day amid a mixed bag of earnings reports.

For October, all three major indexes posted their biggest percentage increases since October 2011, with the S&P 500 rising 8.3 percent, led by energy and materials, while a measure of volatility fell.

On Friday, CVS Health (CVS.N) fell 4.8 percent to $98.78 after a disappointing profit forecast for 2016.

The S&P 500 energy index .SPNY was the best performing sector, rising 0.7 percent. Exxon (XOM.N) rose 0.6 percent and Chevron (CVX.N) 1.1 percent after better-than-expected results.

Investors will be looking at data over the next several weeks, including next Friday's employment report, for clues about the economy's health. The Fed signaled on Wednesday a rate hike in December was still possible.

"The market is being held a little bit hostage," said Jeff Buetow, chief investment officer at Innealta Capital in Austin. "It would be nice to have some clarity once and for all of what monetary policy is going to do over the foreseeable future."

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 92.26 points, or 0.52 percent, to 17,663.54, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 10.05 points, or 0.48 percent, to 2,079.36 and the Nasdaq Composite.IXIC dropped 20.53 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,053.75.   

For the month, the Dow gained 8.5 percent, while the Nasdaq rose 9.4 percent.

In a signal of a return to calm in markets, the CBOE volatility index .VIX fell 38.5 percent in October - its largest monthly percentage decline on record. "We’re not likely to see another month like this anytime soon," said Marshall Gause, chief executive of Geneva Fund Partners in Denver. "This month was a rebound off the lows."

For the week, the Dow inched up 0.1 percent, the S&P increased 0.2 percent, and the Nasdaq rose 0.4 percent. The S&P posted its fifth straight week of gains, its longest such streak this year.

The S&P healthcare sector index .SPXHC rose 3.1 percent for the week, the best weekly gain since March, spurred by strong pharmaceutical earnings.

Shares of drugmaker AbbVie (ABBV.N) jumped 10.1 percent Friday to $59.55, the biggest positive driver for the S&P 500 index, after better-than-expected profit and a strong long-term outlook.

Consumer staples .SPLRCS slipped 1.1 percent. U.S. consumer spending barely rose in September and the University of Michigan's index on consumer sentiment came in below expectations.

The S&P financial sector index .SPSY fell 1.4 percent, with Genworth Financial (GNW.N) tumbling 10.3 percent to $4.68 after results.

U.S.-listed shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX.N) dropped 15.9 percent to $93.77, its lowest since July 2013, after cutting all ties with specialty pharmacy Philidor.

LinkedIn (LNKD.N) shot up 11 percent to $240.87 while Expedia (EXPE.O) jumped 7.3 percent to $136.30 after results beat estimates.

NYSE advancing issues outnumbered declining ones 1,647 to 1,404, for a 1.17-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,638 issues fell and 1,161 advanced, for a 1.41-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and 4 lows; the Nasdaq recorded 49 new highs and 78 lows.

About 7.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 7.1 billion average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.