| Bloomberg Evening Briefing Americas |
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| They're dropping like flies. Businesses and products seen as susceptible to sudden irrelevance courtesy of artificial intelligence are—one by one—being laid low by Wall Street. Business software. Tax planning and wealth management. Now real estate services. Companies in this latest sector saw their stocks sink today as investors decided they're next on the AI hit parade as a new crop of applications and tools threatens to disrupt several industries. Shares of CBRE Group and Jones Lang LaSalle plunged 12% and Cushman & Wakefield dropped 14%. For CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield, the moves marked the biggest drop since the Covid-driven collapse of 2020. The Wednesday selloff delivered another slap to a commercial real estate industry that's struggled to regain its footing since the pandemic. It also pointed up the strange duality of the current market moment. As pessimists await the bursting of an AI bubble that might trigger a market meltdown, investors are assessing the technology's potential for near-term success—and acting accordingly. "We believe investors are rotating out of high-fee, labor-intensive business models viewed as potentially vulnerable to AI-driven disruption," Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Jade Rahmani wrote in a note to clients. And as with everything on Wall Street, the phenomenon has a name: the "AI scare trade." —David E. Rovella | |
What You Need to Know Today | |
| The Trump administration reported more robust-than-expected jobs numbers, with data from the Labor Department indicating US payrolls rose in January by the most in over a year. The reveal by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose chief was fired by President Donald Trump last year after a negative jobs report, indicated unemployment has fallen to 4.3%. "Coming off of a hiring recession in 2025, this is welcome news," said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, adding a nod to Jerome Powell. "I think Fed Chair Powell was right—the labor market appears to be stabilizing." | |
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| Whether the jobs data augurs a turnaround for a shaky employment picture remains to be seen. But one thing the numbers lend credence to is Trump's first year back in the White House was one of America's worst for hiring in decades. Revisions to employment figures showed the nation added 181,000 jobs last year, the lowest annual total outside of recession years since 2003. That averaged out to just 15,000 job gains per month, down from an initially reported 49,000 pace, according to the BLS. By comparison, during the last administration and in the aftermath of the pandemic, US employment rose to near half-century highs. | |
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| The deceased suspect in a mass shooting that left nine people dead in a small town in western Canada was named as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who was known to police. Officers found Van Rootselaar dead after the shooting on Tuesday afternoon at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School from what they believe was a self-inflicted wound. Six others were killed at the school, including four 12-year-old students and one 13-year-old, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.  Police block off an area around the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on Feb. 11. Photographer: Jesse Boily/The Canadian Press/AP Photo Van Rootselaar is also suspected of killing her mother and stepbrother, whose bodies were discovered at a residence, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said Wednesday. The mass killing in Tumbler Ridge, a remote town more than 1,100 kilometers (683 miles) northeast of Vancouver by road, has shocked Canada. It's one of the worst mass shootings in the nation's history, and has drawn condolences from leaders around the world including King Charles III. | |
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| US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned that Democrats would oppose a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security without more changes to Trump's immigration enforcement policies, raising the risk of a partial government shutdown starting on Saturday. Some Republicans remain opposed to two key Democratic demands. In the past, the Constitution's protections against illegal search and seizure generally received bipartisan support. But GOP opponents of proposed immigration agency reform are defending the administration's practice of breaking into homes without a warrant signed by a judge. Some also are supporting the continued use of masks by immigration agents, which Democrats note makes it difficult to hold them accountable for any criminal conduct or civil rights violations. Regardless of what happens in this standoff, the massive tax-and-spend bill pushed through Congress last summer will continue to fund the immigration agencies.  Immigration agents lob teargas at protesters in Minneapolis after the killing of Alex Pretti by two Customs and Border Protection employees last month. Photographer: Kerem Yucel/AFP | |
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| The Trump administration will soon make it the official policy of the US government that greenhouse gases don't endanger Americans' well-being and therefore don't need federal regulation, Mark Gongloff writes in Bloomberg Opinion. Insurance companies, meanwhile, live in a parallel universe where greenhouse gases are heating the atmosphere and intensifying natural disasters, harming human health, destroying property and raising insurance costs. The government's universe is an increasingly lonely fantasy world, Gongloff writes, but Americans are trapped in the real one. And it's about to get more expensive. | |
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| Expanded tax breaks under new US tax laws, from SALT to tips and overtime, could lead to a bigger refund, provided you're willing to navigate added rules and paperwork. | |
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What You'll Need to Know Tomorrow | |
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