U.S. employers added 336,000 jobs in September – well above 170,000 that economists had forecast. Wages up 4.2%, though, came in a bit shy of 4.3% expected.

Still, Marko Kolanovic – Chief Market Strategist of JPMorgan says higher rates remain a significant headwind for stocks. On CNBC’s “Fast Money”, he said:

Last month, the U.S. Federal Reserve skipped a rate hike but signalled rates will likely remain elevated for longer after inflation jumped back to 3.7% in August versus 3.2% in July.

Cards and auto loans delinquencies suggest the consumer is starting to come under pressure, as per Marko Kolanovic, who started the year with a 4,200 target on the S&P 500 index.

He agreed that downside in the benchmark index may not materialise immediately. In fact, equities could gain 5.0% to 7.0% before they start to tumble – but when they do, the JPMorgan expert added, “it could be a 20% downside”.

More importantly, the market strategist touted “magnificent seven” as most vulnerable if the U.S. economy does indeed slide into a recession since the group is currently up a whopping 83% year-to-date.

The Bureau of Labour Statistics is slated to publish its next monthly inflation report on October 12th.