The September jobs report was BAD.

Only 29,000 jobs were added.

Unemployment ticked higher.

And the stock market?

Welcome to a market where:

And there's one reason for it:

For weeks, rising rates have been the villain bullying this market.

The 10-year Treasury climbed as high as 5.26%, its highest level in years.

The 30-year reached levels we hadn't seen since 2004.

And investors became increasingly worried that the Federal Reserve wasn't finished raising rates.

Then this week...

Three economic reports chipped away at the rate-hike story.

And Friday delivered the knockout. Weekly Read #35

We entered the week with rates firmly in control.

📈 10-year Treasury → 5.26%

📈 30-year → Highest levels since 2004

The fear was straightforward:

Higher rates continued putting pressure on stocks and valuations.

Then Wednesday brought the first crack.

Core PCE—the Fed's preferred inflation measure—came in cooler than expected.

For the first time in a while:

📉 Yields eased.

📈 Stocks got some relief.

But the rest of the economic data complicated the story.

Economic growth was revised higher.

Private hiring remained strong.

Normally?

That's good news.

But this market interpreted it differently.

A strong economy gives the Fed more room to keep rates high—or raise them again.

So Wednesday gave us:

Then Friday flipped the story completely.

The government's September jobs report came in weak.

Only:

That was barely a third of what had been expected, while unemployment ticked higher.

Suddenly the prospect of an October rate hike faded dramatically.

And stocks?

Bad economic news produced a bullish market reaction.

Why?

Because this market is looking at virtually everything through one lens:

Wednesday:

🔥 Strong economy → Fed might keep hiking → BAD for stocks.

Friday:

❄️ Weak jobs → Fed may back off → GOOD for stocks.

That's the signature of a market being ruled by interest rates. Weekly Read #35

At the beginning of this story, the market's villain was:

🛢️ OIL

Then the driver changed.

Oil fell, but stocks weren't responding.

Why?

Because the villain had become:

📈 INTEREST RATES

And this week, enough softer economic data finally accumulated to crack the rate story.

That's the lesson:

Then watch for the moment it turns.

This week...

The market's leadership was loud and clear:

NVIDIA announced an enormous buyback and reached new highs by Friday.

Teradyne, Arm and Marvell were among the chip names showing major strength.

Tesla also jumped following a strong delivery report.

Capital is moving aggressively toward AI and technology leadership. Weekly Read #35

A roaring market doesn't rescue a bad company-specific story.

Nike plunged following a weak outlook.

Seagate and Western Digital were hit by competition news involving Toshiba.

That's an important reminder:

The backdrop has clearly improved.

📉 Rate pressure is easing.

🛢️ Oil is back near $90.

🤖 AI and chips are breaking out.

📈 Market leadership is showing conviction.

That's constructive.

But it isn't an all-clear.

Inflation remains above the Fed's target.

And a weakening labor market can eventually become something considerably less bullish than a reason for the Fed to stop hiking.

Next week I'm watching:

📈 10-Year Treasury

👷 Labor-market data

🤖 AI & chip leadership

💰 Beginning of Q3 earnings season

Friday's jobs number answered one question.

Now we need to know: