Stocks Rally for No Reason Tuesday; Stock Futures, Bitcoin Slide Wednesday After ADP Reports Poor Jobs Mumbers for May

Tuesday's melt-up wasn't so much a rally as money needing a place to go. All of the major averages were higher, though there wasn't much in the way of news or data - other than a brightening jobs picture via the BLS JOLTS report, which, for obvious reasons, has to be taken with a great deal of skepticism.

According to ADP's May Employment Report, the U.S. added only 37,000 jobs in May, the lowest level since March 2023. All of the gains were by mid-sized businesses with 50-249 employees. All other-sized companies lost jobs, including small (1-49 employees), -13,000, mid-sized (250-499), -2,000, and large (500+), -3,000.

The ADP report for private firms often varies wildly from the monthly non-farm payroll report, which is the province of the BLS government bean-counters. Stock watchers are hopeful that jobs growth in the month of May will show up stronger in Friday's Non-farm Payroll report than ADP suggests.

The release of the report caused stock futures to lose all of the morning's gains, sending Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P futures into the red.

Earnings reports from Tuesday after the bell and Wednesday morning had some impact to futures' direction.

Late Wednesday, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) posted strong fiscal second quarter 2025 results and suggested that there were better earnings in the pipeline. Shares were up more than six percent prior to the opening bell.

Sportsman's Warehouse (SPWH) disappointed investors who thought they were getting a bargain at sub-$3 for shares of the company. The company missed on earnings and revenues, reporting a loss in the first quarter of 41 cents on revenues of $249.1 million. Share were seen lower by six percent Wednesday morning.

Crowdstrike (CRWD) also missed the mark, with shares down seven percent pre-market, just after hitting an all-time high. Its adjusted net income of $184.7 million, or 73 cents per share, fell from $196.8 million, or 79 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter, but beat estimates. The forecast was less encouraging, causing the stock to be sold.

Dollar Tree (DLTR) shares were down two to three percent as the company reported first quarter earnings, adjusted for one-time items, of 1.26 a share, beating the estimate of 1.21. Despite same store sales improving by 5.4% in the quarter, the company issued waffling guidance, saying it could mitigate some of the tariff issues, much like competitor, Family Dollar, expressed on Tuesday, but warned that second quarter adjusted earnings per share could be down as much as 45% to 50% year-over-year.

Bitcoin was also sliding, at $104,936.30.

Not to worry, futures are nearly flat-lining approaching the opening bell.

At the Close, Tuesday, June 3, 2025:
Dow: 42,519.64, +214.16 +(0.51%)
NASDAQ: 19,398.96, +156.34 (+0.81%)
S&P 500: 5,970.37, +34.43 (+0.58%)
NYSE Composite: 19,912.38, +77.60 (+0.39%)