Scott Horsley

The results have been mixed, but a consistent theme is that shoppers are being cautious and hunting for bargains.

Stock in raw stores and the gap opened higher after both reported better than expected quarterly sales.

With a double-digit tariff on goods from Japan, the U.S.

imported less from that country in October, but Japanese firms made up for it with higher sales to the rest of the world.

Japan's overall exports were up 3.7 percent from a year ago.

Tokyo's Nikkei Stock Index fell overnight.

Stocks were also down in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Seoul.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

Investors have been questioning whether the sky-high price of tech stocks is justified or the result of an artificial intelligence bubble.

Another off-the-chart earnings report from computer chip giant NVIDIA briefly calmed those worries and stocks soared at the opening bell.

Investors were also encouraged by a better-than-expected jobs report from the Labor Department.

Jitters quickly returned, however, and all the major stock indexes ended the day deep in the red.

In addition to the price of tech stocks, investors are nervous about whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again in a few weeks.

A rate cut that seemed all but certain a month ago now looks like a much closer call.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

The report shows hiring was uneven in September.

Health care and hospitality continued to add workers.

but factories and warehouses shed jobs.

The unemployment rate inched up to 4.4 percent while the workforce grew.

Job gains for the two previous months were revised down by a total of 33,000 jobs.