Scott Horsley

A consulting company that tracks layoff notices says it was the worst October for job cuts in more than two decades.

Consumers are feeling gloomy.

A University of Michigan survey showed consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level in three years.

And high-flying tech stocks also lost some altitude as investors wondered if artificial intelligence will live up to all the hype.

For the week, the Dow dipped 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 index fell 1.6 percent, and the Nasdaq tumbled 3 percent.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

The last official jobs report we got was two months ago.

And as Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook told an audience at the Brookings Institution this week, that's a long time in a fast-moving economy like ours.

That's why the Fed lowered interest rates last week in an effort to boost demand and try to prop up the job market.

For the second month in a row, the Labor Department's report on employment and unemployment has been held up by the government shutdown.

The department number crunchers who ordinarily assemble that report are on furlough.

along with hundreds of thousands of other federal workers.

The shutdown's also straining already shorthanded air traffic controllers.

Airline stocks are dragging as the FAA ordered airlines to scale back flight schedules by up to 10 percent at major airports.

Tesla shares opened lower after investors approved a mammoth pay package for Elon Musk.

The CEO could receive up to a trillion dollars worth of Tesla stock over the next decade.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

All the major stock indexes fell during the day, with the S&P 500 sliding 1.1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping almost 2 percent.

Investors are nervous that the run-up in technology stocks fueled by the artificial intelligence boom could turn out to be overdone.

Ordinarily, investors would have been looking for a report from the Labor Department this week on the job market, but that's been held up by the government shutdown.