The major U.S. index futures on the Dow Jones, S&P and Nasdaq are currently pointing to a roughly flat open on Wednesday, with stocks likely to show a lack of direction following the upward move seen over the two previous sessions.
The futures had been pointing to a higher open on Wall Street but gave back ground following the release of a report from payroll processor ADP showing weaker than expected private sector job growth in the month of May.
ADP said private sector employment rose by 37,000 jobs in May after climbing by a downwardly revised 60,000 jobs in April.
Economists had expected private sector employment to jump by 115,000 jobs compared to the addition of 62,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
“After a strong start to the year, hiring is losing momentum,” said ADP chief economist Dr. Nela Richardson. “Pay growth, however, was little changed in May, holding at robust levels for both job-stayers and job-changers.”
In a post on Truth Social immediately after the report was released, President Donald Trump once again urged Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates.
“ADP NUMBER OUT!!! ‘Too Late’ Powell must now LOWER THE RATE,” Trump said. “He is unbelievable!!!”
After recovering from early weakness to end Monday’s session mostly higher, stocks saw further upside during trading on Tuesday. With the continued upward move, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reached their best closing levels in over three months.
The major averages ended the day off their highs of the session but still firmly positive. The Nasdaq advanced 156.34 points or 0.8 percent to 19,398.96, the S&P 500 climbed 34.43 points or 0.6 percent to 5,970.37 and the Dow rose 214.16 points or 0.5 percent to 42,519.64.
The continued strength on Wall Street came following the release of a Labor Department report showing an unexpected increase by job openings in the U.S. in the month of April.
The Labor Department said job openings climbed to 7.391 million in April from an upwardly revised 7.200 million in March.
Economists had expected job openings to decrease to 7.100 million from the 7.192 million originally reported for the previous month.
The unexpected rebound by job openings partly reflected increases in job openings in the arts, entertainment, and recreation and mining and logging sectors.
“The higher-than-expected job openings number this morning is a good sign for the economy, as many were worried that the tariff uncertainty was weighing too heavily on businesses,” Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Northlight Asset Management.
Meanwhile, traders continued to await further developments on the trade front a month ahead of the expiration of President Donald Trump’s 90-day tariff pause.
While tensions between the U.S. and China have seemingly risen in recent days, traders appear to remain generally optimistic about trade deals being reached.
“The 90-day pause on tariffs has just over a month before expiration, meaning the pressure is on countries to do deals with the Trump administration,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
He added, “Reports suggest that Trump wants best offers on trade negotiations by Wednesday, perhaps to avoid any last-minute rush or stalemate situations.”
Oil service stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day, resulting in a 4.2 percent spike by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index.
The rally by oil service stocks came as the price of crude oil extended Monday’s surge amid ongoing supply concerns.
Substantial strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 2.7 percent jump by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Computer hardware and networking stocks also saw considerable strength, contributing to the advance by the tech-heavy Nasdaq, while housing and banking stocks also moved notably higher.
Dow Jones, S&P, Nasdaq, U.S. Stocks May Lack Direction Following Disappointing Private Sector Jobs Data
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