After declines in the markets last week, the question at the start of this week was whether they would continue. The news from yesterday was, frankly, not all that encouraging. Markets did try to rally, only to fall at the end of the day. Nonetheless, there are reasons to believe that the markets are stabilizing and may even be headed higher over the next couple of weeks.

Last week was mostly about prices, although we finished with a look at consumer confidence. This is a busy week, with a wide range of data from across the economy.

We had another bad day yesterday, with markets pulling back even further. This big decline, for the second day in a row, sent fear levels even higher. Overall, the drop so far has been about 7 percent for the S&P 500. This is a big loss over two days, especially by recent standards.

Yesterday was a bad day in the market. The Dow was down more than 800 points (800 points!), and the S&P was down almost 100 points (100 points!). Surely, this is the beginning of the end.

Market risks come in three flavors: recession risk, economic shock risk, and risks within the market itself. So, what do these risks look like for October? Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.

The good news is that confidence was strong last month. Business sentiment bounced back in a big way, to a 21-year high. Consumer confidence rose even further, to an 18-year high. But the less good news is that job growth weakened on a monthly basis and interest rates rose. For both, though, there are other factors to consider. Job growth, for example, was revised up significantly for previous months, more than offsetting the monthly shortfall and keeping the annual growth figures healthy. Plus, rising interest rates widen the spread, reducing the chance of a yield curve inversion.

Last week was a busy one for economic data, with looks at business sentiment, the trade balance, and, most important, the job market. This week’s data digs into pricing and inflation, as well as gives us another look at consumer confidence.

Looking at the headlines, this has been a tough week for the U.S. economy. Interest rates spiked. Job growth dropped substantially. Oil prices are rising. So, we have three key economic and market risk indicators moving in the wrong direction, and markets dropped yesterday as a result. Is it time to panic?

Now that the third quarter of 2018 is over, we can look back and gain some perspective on what happened. It was a good three months, for the economy and for the markets—at least here in the U.S. Abroad, the news was much more mixed, particularly for emerging markets. Let’s take a look at some of the big ideas that drove the quarter.

There’s a lot going on in the world. As such, I thought today would be best served by taking a quick look at some of the financial news—and what the headlines mean in the bigger picture.