Modern markets have gotten used to central bank support whenever the global economy wobbles. But as the world confronts a fresh energy shock unfolding against brittle labor markets, investors need to prepare themselves for the possibility that central bankers won’t have their backs — quite the opposite.

Markets had a relatively hawkish read on one of the busiest weeks in central banking in recent memory. Two-year government bond yields jumped in the US and across Europe’s major economies as the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England sprinkled more than an ounce of inflationary caution into their decisions to leave interest rates unchanged. Traders largely abandoned the pre-Iran war idea that benchmark rates would tick lower in the US and UK this year to support job growth.

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