Employment worries help trigger a sharp sell-off in U.S. equity markets on Monday, leading to speculation that the month will end with another weak day on Tuesday. The problem with the market this week is Friday’s Non-Farm Payrolls Report. The market is looking for a decline of 106K to 120K and a jobless rate of 9.6%. Investors are worried that after a summer of weak economic reports, the season will end with a bearish jobs report.

Monday’s ho-hum Personal Income and Personal Spending reports did not provide the power stocks needed today to sustain earlier gains. This led to a day-long sell-off which took the markets beyond a normal short-term retracement and left them in a position to challenge last week’s lows.

Thin trading conditions and a plethora of economic reports can fuel a pretty volatile day on Tuesday. Shortly after the start of tomorrow’s trading session, investors will have the opportunity to digest the housing market with the Case-Shiller 20-city index, manufacturing with the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index and Consumer Confidence. Later in the day, the Minutes of the FOMC Meeting will be released. This report will give opportunities a peek at what the Fed discussed at its last meeting when it decided to leave interest rates unchanged, but shift the proceeds out of mortgage securities into Treasury securities.