Your Capital Markets Snapshot: Markets Bouncing Around But Trending Down

An eventful week last week led to markets bouncing around but trending down for most of the week, resulting from increasing tensions in the Middle East and the East Coast port strike. After the strike tentatively ended late Thursday and a strong jobs report on Friday, we saw markets recover and post modest gains for the week. While the Federal Reserve seeks to balance its dual mandates of stable prices and full employment, last week may have some wondering if inflation concerns are truly in the rearview mirror as oil prices increased following Iran’s missile attack as well as US labor strikes becoming more common and leading to potentially higher wages. We will get inflation data next week that can help answer some of these questions, but for now the US economy appears to be on firm footing after posting the strongest job gains in the past six months paired with upward revisions to July and August’s job report numbers.