Stocks Continue Gains Despite Mideast Tensions; Gold, Silver Remain Underinvested, Rangebound; Bitcoin Headed to Crypto Hell

A number of items that could lead stock trades on Wednesday include:

• ADP reporting 122,000 jobs were added in May, topping expectations by 2,000, resulting in the largest monthly jobs gain since January 2025.
• President Trump rolling out new tariffs on 60 trading partners, citing forced labor as the root cause.
• Escalation in the Middle East, with Iran retaliating against U.S. assaults overnight, striking American bases in Gulf countries and hitting the airport in Kuwait, causing multiple casualties.

The ADP report comes on the heels of Tuesday's JOLTS report from the BLS:

The number of job openings increased to 7.6 million in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires and total separations decreased to 5.1 million and 5.0 million, respectively. Within separations, both quits (3.0 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.7 million) were little changed.

As has been the case since liberation day and its semi-reversal last April, tariffs don't seem to be having any negative affect on stocks, though some of the additional costs have been adding to inflationary pressures. Nobody in any official capacity seems to mind, at the White House, Capitol Hill, or at the Fed. Americans just are supposed ot suck it up and keep working because the economy is so robust. There's almost no mention of inflation in the mainstream media on a regular basis as it's become part of the routine. Americans should just accept that the prices of everything will fluctuate and eventually move higher. That's the deal.

Tensions with Iran and the Middle East scene as a whole are cut from the same cloth, though they get more media coverage. Overall, however, the situation continues to ebb and flow with the White House and State Department continuing to insist that a peace deal with the Persian nation is at hand. That kind of "imminent" talk has been bandied about for the past month. Always, it has come to be meaningless and the warring is likely to persist through the summer. Though the president keeps insisting he wants the war to end, he's said the same about Ukraine. Both conflicts match the construct of "forever wars", of which the American public has grown weary. The MIC, however, is happily riding war profits (which used to be a crime).

With U.S. markets opening within minutes, stock futures are mixed, with the Dow down 200, the S&P down 16 points, and the NASDAQ up 18 points. WTI crude oil futures are slightly elevated, reaching upwards of $95/barrel. Gold and silver are both down, but remain within recent ranges.

There is absolutely nothing to worry about from an investment perspective. Stocks are in a kind of sweet spot that has rarely been seen before. 55,000 on the Dow this year is not out of the question, as it would be less than a 10% gain from current levels. The NASDAQ and S&P should also continue making records. There's an incredible amount of support by current shareholders and momentum chasers.

Bitcoin, down more than $15,000 the past month, appears to be headed for the asset wood chipper.

At the Close, Tuesday, June 2, 2026:
Dow: 51,307.79, +228.91 (+0.45%)
NASDAQ: 27,093.90, +7.09 (+0.03%)
S&P 500: 7,609.78, +9.82 (+0.13%)
NYSE Composite: 23,480.92, +145.77 (+0.62%)