Markets In Focus: The Week That Was and What’s On Tap
THE WEEK THAT WAS
U.S. stocks finished a choppy week little changed. The S&P 500 rose 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4%, and the Russell 2000 advanced 0.1%.
The week opened under pressure from a fresh flare-up in the U.S.–Iran conflict around the Strait of Hormuz. Strikes and tanker incidents lifted crude sharply, with Brent and WTI up on the order of 7% for the week at their peaks, and sent Treasury yields higher as markets priced a larger inflation impulse from energy. Risk assets sold off Monday and Tuesday; energy was the only sector that consistently held up.
A midweek rebound followed comments from Fed Governor Christopher Waller that he could support holding rates if incoming inflation data confirmed disinflation. Yields eased, mega cap technology and communication services led, and the major averages recouped most of the early-week losses. That relief proved short-lived.
Friday’s August employment report was the decisive print. Nonfarm payrolls rose 162,000 versus expectations near 55,000, with sizable upward revisions to June and July. The unemployment rate held at 4.1%. Markets immediately raised the odds of a 25 basis-point hike at the September 15–16 FOMC meeting. Stocks sold off into the Labor Day weekend even as the Nasdaq and S&P still posted modest weekly gains.
Corporate news added a second layer. Nvidia’s planned acquisition of Hugging Face supported sentiment in AI platforms. Snowflake and Dell posted strong results and raised outlooks. Broadcom beat but disappointed versus elevated AI revenue expectations. Lululemon cut guidance and was among the week’s worst S&P 500 names.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Equities enter the week near record highs after Friday’s blowout August jobs report reset the macro narrative. That employment strength complicates the market’s rate-cut assumptions heading into the September 16–17 FOMC meeting, which begins its blackout period this week, leaving investors to digest data without Fed commentary to contextualize it.
That puts extra weight on this week’s inflation data. Thursday’s PPI and Friday’s CPI are the marquee releases; with headline CPI tracking in the mid-3% range, a hot print, now compounding a strong labor market, would meaningfully raise the bar for a September cut and pressure duration-sensitive growth and rate-sensitive sectors. A benign inflation read, by contrast, would let the Fed reconcile a resilient labor market with cooling prices and preserve the easing path.
On earnings, Adobe reports Wednesday, with focus on whether AI-driven creative tools are sustaining pricing power against generative-AI competition. Oracle reports Thursday evening, the more consequential print given its outsized AI-infrastructure backlog; investors will watch whether that backlog is converting into delivered capacity and cash flow. Kroger and RH round out the week with consumer and housing read-throughs.
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The S&P 500 generally represents performance of 500 large companies listed on exchanges in the U. S. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. The Nasdaq Composite Index is a market-weighted index that measures the performance of more than 3,000 common equities listed on the Nasdaq Composite Market. The Russell 2,000 Index is a market-cap weighted index that measures the performance of approximately 2,000 of the smallest companies in the Russell 3,000 Index. The MSCI ACWI captures Large and Mid-Cap representation across 23 Developed Markets (DM) and 24 Emerging Markets (EM) countries. With 2,921 constituents, the index covers approximately 85% of the global investable equity opportunity set. FactSet Research System is a financial data and software company that provides research for Wall Street professionals and individual investors.
