Robert Barone

For several weeks, the financial markets have been looking forward to Fed Chair Powell's Jackson Hole speech, hoping they would glean some perspective on what lies ahead for interest rates.

This week, it was the old industrial economy that was the star, with the Dow Jones setting new all-time highs on both Thursday (41,331) and

The equity market appears to have succumbed to the growing list of weakening economic data. The major stock indexes fell significantly this week.

Equity markets were up smartly for the week ended September 13 with three of the four major averages up between 4% and 6% (see table). Only the Dow

The equity market continued on a roll this week with both the DJIA and the S&P 500 closing at new historic highs on Friday (October 11 th ). For the week, all four major indexes were up around the +1% level.

It was a quiet week in the financial markets with the major indexes up about 1% (the small cap Russell 2000 was up almost 2%). No market moving news, so the markets crawled higher.

It was a down week for most of the major indexes with only the Nasdaq managing to keep its head slightly above water.

The changes for the week in the major equity indexes were negative; and the indexes showed significant volatility.

The Dow Jones gained more than 1500 points on Wednesday after Trump won the 270 electoral votes needed to become the 47 th President of the United States, and the volume was twice the normal level.

The equity markets were flat to down all week, perhaps digesting the upturn after the election. After all, year to date, equities are up in the 20% range.