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Futures: Dow down 0.05%, S&P 500 flat, Nasdaq down 0.02%
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Wells Fargo ( WFC ) shares rise after Fed ends growth freeze
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CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) falls on downbeat quarterly revenue forecast
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S&P Global and ISM's services sector PMI data on tap
(Updates before markets open)
By Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta
June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set for a muted open
on Wednesday as much weaker-than-expected private payrolls data
deepened concerns about the Trump administration's erratic trade
policies pressuring the labor market.
Private payrolls increased by only 37,000 jobs in May, while
economists polled by Reuters had forecast an increase of
110,000.
"I think you get very short term volatility from the ADP
number, but I don't think that it means that much until we see
the payrolls number," said Larry Tentarelli, chief technical
strategist at Blue Chip Daily Trend Report.
Investors are awaiting Friday's nonfarm-payrolls data for
more signs on how trade uncertainty is affecting the U.S.
economy.
Washington doubled tariffs on imported steel and aluminum
to 50% on Wednesday, the same day by which Trump had wanted
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.
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.
With fresh tariff announcements in place, the S&P 500
remains about 3% away from its 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.
Other data releases scheduled for Wednesday include S&P
Global and ISM's services sector activity readings for May.
At 08:54 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 20 points,
or 0.05%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 0.25 points and
Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 3.5 points, or 0.02%.
Megacap and growth stocks were mixed in premarket trading.
Apple ( AAPL ) dipped 0.5% after brokerage Needham downgraded
the iPhone maker to "hold" from "buy".
Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ) rose 6.6% as
demand for the company's artificial-intelligence servers and
hybrid cloud segment helped it beat estimates for second-quarter
revenue and profit.
Wells Fargo ( WFC ) shares rose 2.4% after the U.S. Federal
Reserve removed a $1.95 trillion asset cap imposed in 2018
following years of missteps.
Shares of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) slumped
7.6% after it forecast quarterly revenue below estimates.
Dollar Tree ( DLTR ) fell nearly 2% after the discount store
operator forecast second-quarter adjusted profit would be as
much as 50% lower than a year ago due to tariff-driven
volatility.
(Reporting by Kanchana Chakravarty and Sukriti Gupta in
Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)