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Indexes up: Dow 0.1%, S&P 500 0.18%, Nasdaq 0.28%

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CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) falls on downbeat quarterly revenue forecast

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GlobalFoundaries up on plans to increase investments

(Updates with afternoon trading levels)

By Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta

June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on

Wednesday, as strength in technology shares offset declines

driven by weak economic data that deepened concerns about the

impact of the Trump administration's erratic trade policies.

The services sector contracted for the first time in nearly

a year in May, while businesses paid higher input prices, a

reminder that the economy was still at risk of experiencing a

period of very slow growth and high inflation.

The ADP National Employment Report showed U.S. private

employers added the fewest number of workers in more than two

years in May. Investors are awaiting 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% on Wednesday, the same deadline President Donald Trump

had set for trading partners to make their best offers to avoid

other punishing import levies from taking effect in early July.

Investor focus is squarely on tariff negotiations between

Washington and its 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 was the best month 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 less than 3% away from record highs

touched in February.

Barclays joined a slew of other 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.

At 11:56 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose 40.62 points, or 0.10%, to 42,560.26, the S&P 500

gained 10.64 points, or 0.18%, to 5,981.00 and the Nasdaq

Composite gained 54.24 points, or 0.28%, to 19,453.20.

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose, led by

communication services with a 0.8% rise.

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ) rose 1.8% as

demand for the company's artificial-intelligence servers and

hybrid cloud segment helped it beat estimates for second-quarter

revenue and profit.

GlobalFoundries ( GFS ) rose 2% after the chip manufacturer

announced plans to increase its investments to $16 billion.

Tesla dropped nearly 3%. The electric-vehicle

maker's sales dropped for the fifth straight month in big

European markets.

Shares of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) slumped

5.4% after it forecast quarterly revenue below estimates.

Dollar Tree ( DLTR ) fell 7.5% 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.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.63-to-1 ratio

on the NYSE and by a 1.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows

while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 71 new highs and 27 new

lows.