Oil goes up in price because of signs that economic expansion in the U.S. is accelerating, but consumer spending fell last month. Here’s the Friday Bloomberg After The Bell Report from the New York Stock Exchange.

Friday marks the end of the Atlantic hurricane season and will go down as one of the most damaging in history after producing 19 named storms. Superstorm Sandy also caused consumer spending to fall in October.

As for the markets, stocks were little changed on this last day of November as investors weighed comments by lawmakers on budget talks. Oil had its first monthly increase since August, a sign that optimism about the economy is growing. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia rose the most in two months after the New York Post reported the company may have a buyer for one of its magazines.

Health insurers who want to sell plans in states that refuse to create new U.S. health care marketplaces will have to pay fees so that the government can regulate them. The exchanges are new marketplaces, kind of like online travel services where uninsured people can buy policies. Each state has until December 14th to tell the government whether or not they will run an exchange.