The month of September lived up to its billing as a historically challenging seasonal period for equity markets as major U.S. indices slid lower again last week and closed out with the worst monthly performance of the year.

Last week was a bit challenging for stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.89% for the week. The S&P 500 followed suit down 2.91%, and the NASDAQ lost 3.61% for the week.

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U.S. stock indexes ended last week little changed to down slightly as economic data generally came in near expectations. For the week, S&P 500 and the Dow Jones lost 0.95% and 0.33%, respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.61%.

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