Stocks opened the week strong, with the S&P 500 marking the 15th consecutive Monday of gains. But deepening tensions in the Middle East weighed on markets by mid-week, and shares fell sharply on Thursday following reports that a U.S. Navy destroyer had shot down cruise missiles reportedly headed toward Israel.

The month of September is historically a rough month for markets — and this year was no exception. Rising gas prices and high mortgage rates weighed on markets throughout the month. Then the prospect of a potential government shutdown pulled stocks down even further last week.

The Federal Reserve didn’t raise rates last week but left the door open for one more rate hike in the final two meetings of 2023. This was widely expected, but markets still didn’t like Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments in his post-meeting press conference.

Stocks closed lower last week, even as the latest data shows the U.S. is still doing well from an economic standpoint. Not a lot of new numbers were released, but the ones that were generally surprised on the upside.

Markets didn’t know which direction to go last week as they tried to decide which had more weight: the good news or the not-so-good news.