S&P 500 Index Today: SPY Pushes Higher Despite Concerning Private Payrolls, Services Sector Data

The S&P 500 (SPX) is trading higher on Wednesday despite two pieces of concerning economic data releases. The benchmark index is now less than 3% away from its all-time high.

This morning, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) announced that May private sector payrolls increased by just 37,000 jobs, the lowest since March 2023. Economists were expecting 110,000 additions while April’s figure was revised down to 60,000.

“ADP NUMBER OUT!!! “Too Late” Powell must now LOWER THE RATE,” said President Trump on Truth Social in response to the report.

After that, the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) May Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed a reading of 49.9, well below the expectation for 52.0. A reading above 50 indicates expansion while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. May marked just the fourth time during the past five years that the Services PMI came in below 50. The ISM noted that many survey respondents were hesitant on placing orders until they could better understand the impact of tariffs.

The S&P 500 is up by 0.21% at the time of writing.

Which Stocks are Moving the S&P 500?

Let’s take a look at TipRank’s S&P 500 Heatmap, which illustrates the stocks that have contributed to the index’s price action.

Within the technology group, CrowdStrike (CRWD) is facing the most significant loss after the cybersecurity leader reported its fiscal first quarter earnings with disappointing guidance. Meanwhile, chip stocks like Broadcom (AVGO), Micron (MU), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are trading higher while Nvidia (NVDA) trails behind.

Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), and Netflix (NFLX), four large components of the communication services group, are all in the green. On the other hand, Tesla (TSLA) is down by over 3% after its May sales in Britain, Germany, and Italy fell for a fifth consecutive month.

SPY Stock Rises Higher with the S&P 500

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is an exchange-traded fund designed to track the movement of the S&P 500. As a result, SPY moves in correlation with the SPX.

Wall Street expects further upside for SPY. During the past three months, analysts have issued an average SPY price target of $655.51 for the stocks within the index, implying upside of 9.75% from current prices. The 505 stocks in SPY carry 419 buy ratings, 79 hold ratings, and 7 sell ratings.