Stocks fell for a third straight week as investors gauged the health of the U.S. economy and its impact on future monetary policy. The S&P 500 Index climbed on September 30 after the U.S. administration denied claims that the United States is exploring plans to limit U.S. investors’ portfolio flows into China. Then, the S&P 500 kicked off the fourth quarter with a 3% slide over two days, spurred by pessimism after an Institute for Supply Management (ISM) report (released Monday) showed manufacturing activity fell to a 10-year low in September. Tepid data flow continued into Thursday, when a separate ISM report showed services ac

The U.S. labor market keeps chugging along, despite signs of weakness in other pockets of the U.S. economy.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 136,000 in September, and July and August payrolls growth were revised up by 45,000. The 12-month average payrolls change climbed to 179,000 including Friday’s data, still slightly higher than the expansion average.

Overall, the September jobs report showed hiring has been steady, defying recent worries of economic weakness after surprisingly weak manufacturing and services surveys were released earlier this week. Other labor-market measures also look healthy. The unemployment rate f

Well, that wasn’t the start to the fourth quarter that the bulls wanted. The S&P 500 Index has dropped at least 1% on consecutive days to start the fourth quarter for the first time in history. It was down about 3% after two days, the worst start to the fourth quarter since 2009.

So, what has happened or changed? There are still headlines on the impeachment inquiry, protests in Hong Kong, weakening manufacturing data, and trade tensions. As we discussed on October 2, September was historically calm and October tends to be quite volatile. So maybe it was simply “time” for some seasonal volatility.

Just like that, the S&P 500 Index fell more than 1% on the first day of October. The rough start has many investors on edge, as October is known for spectacular crashes—specifically 1929, 1987, and 2008.

On the flipside, September 2019 was historically calm for equity markets, as the S&P 500 didn’t fall 1% on a single day the entire month.

“The lack of any volatility in September could mean the usually volatile month of October could be due for some big swings,” said LPL Financial Senior Market Strategist Ryan Detrick. “The good news, though, is while October has had a bad rap fo