A sharp slowdown in U.S. hiring lifted stock futures on Oct. 2, as investors bet that a cooling labor market could keep the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates again this month. Employers added only 29,000 nonfarm payrolls in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Oct. 2, well under forecasts that ranged from roughly 84,000 to 90,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%. The agency also lowered its July and August figures by a combined 60,000 jobs, so July now shows a loss of 10,000 positions and August's gain shrinks to 133,000 from 162,000. Paychecks cooled too. Average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose 0.1% in September to $37.81 and were up 3% over 12 months, both short of the 0.3% and 3.2% gains economists had penciled in. Payroll growth has averaged just 45,000 a month over the past year. Health care, construction and manufacturing added modestly, while financial activities lost 7,000 jobs. Markets took the soft numbers as a reli...