*

Services contracted in May for the first time in nearly a

year

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CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) falls on downbeat quarterly revenue forecast

*

Fed lifts asset cap on Wells Fargo ( WFC ), shares hit 3-month

high

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GlobalFoundaries up on plans to increase investments

(Updates to close)

By Saeed Azhar, Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta

NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - The benchmark S&P 500 stock

index ended modestly higher on Wednesday, supported by

technology shares, but some early gains evaporated as weak data

revealed the economic toll taken by President Donald Trump's

erratic trade policies.

The services sector contracted in May for the first time in

nearly a year, while businesses paid higher input prices, a

reminder that the economy was still at risk of slowing growth

and rising inflation.

"Tariff impacts are likely elevating prices paid by services

sector companies," said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL

Financial.

The ADP National Employment Report showed U.S. private

employers in May added the fewest number of workers in more than

two years. Investors await Friday's nonfarm-payrolls data for

more signs on how trade uncertainty is affecting the U.S. labor

market.

Washington doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminum

to 50%, and Wednesday was also Trump's deadline for trading

partners to make their best offers to avoid other punishing

import levies from taking effect in early July.

Investors focused on tariff negotiations between Washington

and trading partners, with Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping

expected to speak sometime this week as tensions simmer between

the world's two biggest economies.

"If we can't get to an agreement on China, the tariff battle

will be a headline issue for many months to come and will have

an impact on both domestic and international economies," said

Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management.

May saw the biggest monthly increases for the S&P 500 index

and the tech-heavy Nasdaq since November 2023,

thanks to a softening of Trump's harsh trade stance and upbeat

earnings reports.

The S&P 500 remains more than 2% below record highs touched

in February.

Barclays joined a slew of brokerages in raising its year-end

price target for the S&P 500, pointing to easing trade

uncertainty and expectations of normalized earnings growth in

2026.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500

gained 0.79 points, or 0.01%, to end at 5,970.89 points,

while the Nasdaq Composite gained 67.46 points, or

0.35%, to 19,466.42. The Dow Jones Industrial Average

fell 84.13 points, or 0.20%, to 42,435.51.

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ) rose as

demand for artificial-intelligence servers and hybrid cloud

segment helped second-quarter revenue and profit beat estimates.

GlobalFoundries ( GFS ) rose 1.5% after the chip

manufacturer announced plans to increase investments to $16

billion.

Shares of the fourth-largest U.S. bank Wells Fargo ( WFC )

briefly hit a three-month high after the Federal Reserve lifted

a longstanding $1.95 trillion cap on its assets.

Wells Fargo ( WFC ) CEO Charlie Scharf told Reuters he expects

the bank to grow in all businesses including wealth, commercial

and investment banking and credit cards, but not mortgages.

Tesla fell as the electric-vehicle maker's

sales dropped for the fifth straight month in big European

markets.

Shares of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) slumped

after it forecast quarterly revenue below estimates.

Dollar Tree ( DLTR ) dropped as the discount store operator

forecast second-quarter adjusted profit could fall as much as

50% from a year ago due to tariff-driven volatility.