165,000 jobs, a 2.3% DAX drop, and a pause that is not yet a recovery
October payrolls came in nearly three times the forecast. Europe still closed lower on AI-regulation fear after the midterms, even as US futures tried to steady.
The number arrived at 14:30 Berlin time, and it was not the sparse print the morning had prepared for. US nonfarm payrolls rose by 165,000 in October, against a Dow Jones consensus of about 59,000; the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1% from 4.2%. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% on the month and 3.1% over the year. August was revised up by 53,000 to 186,000 and September by 31,000 to 60,000. Desk arithmetic: the two revisions alone add 84,000 jobs that were not in last month's picture.
**What Europe did with Thursday's fear.** Before that print, and after it, Frankfurt had already priced a different story. The DAX closed at 25,706, down 2.3%, a day after its record high of 26,692.90. On the week it was still only about 0.3% lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 was down about 1.7% near 643.72 by the close, wiping out the week's earlier gains. Chip and AI names had led the Asian overnight fall — Japan's Nikkei about 6% lower at the close, South Korea's Kospi down about 6% after an 8.8% plunge that tripped a halt — and Europe opened with the same argument.
