In the wake of Friday's dismal job creation data, financial market participants are no longer wondering whether the Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in September,

Federal Reserve policymakers look set to kick off a series of interest rate cuts this month to shore up an increasingly fragile labor market, after a government report on Friday showed job growth nearly stalled and the unemployment rate rose in August.

Home gains slow: Price appreciation averaged 3.3% a year after noteworthy Fed cuts, according to a federal home-price index. That’s down from 3.5% gains the year before and the 4.8% 40-year pace. But note that such coolings occurred only 38% of the time after big Fed cuts. So the central bank’s pull on prices is unclear.