In 30 seconds: April JOLTS data showed job openings surging to a near two-year high of 7.6 million, but hiring rates fell to one of their lowest levels since 2013, painting a mixed picture of a labor market that is tightening modestly but remains structurally sluggish. The S&P 500 has reached 24 all-time highs in 2026, staging a remarkable 19% nine-week rally after being down 7% in late March, though breadth has been notably weak during the streak. Eurozone headline inflation rose to 3.2% in May with services inflation jumping sharply, while the ECB reported gold now surpasses both the euro and US Treasuries in global reserve share, complicating the path for further rate cuts as a Cleveland Fed president signals possible rate hikes. Google's large equity issuance has sparked debate about whether major tech and AI infrastructure companies will increasingly turn to equity markets rather than debt to fund massive capital expenditure programs, with data center construction spending surpassing $50 billion for the first time.
Job openings surged to 7.618 million, blowing past the 6.866 million estimate and the revised prior of 6.887 million. Job openings jumped in April by 731,000, pushing up the 3-month moving average for the first time since last fall. The vacancy rate hit 4.8%, a two-year high. The ratio of vacancies to unemployed workers reached 1, its highest level since January 2025. If you are looking for signs of a tighter labor market, the openings data offers some. Now look at the other side of the ledger. Hiring fell 419,000 to 5.1 million, and the hiring rate slipped to 3.2%, its third-lowest level since early 2013. Quits dropped 183,000 to 3.0 million, with the quits rate at 1.9%. Layoffs came in at 1.7mn, down 192,000, and the layoffs rate sat at 1.1%. US labor market flows remained sluggish in April. Hiring remains near a 15-year low. The job openings rate printed 4.6%. The hiring rate bounced down in April but was coming off a temporary bounce up in March. The real read is it remains low. As do job separations. April layoffs: 1.7mn. The question is whether labor market conditions are tight enough to generate wage pressure and feed into inflation expectations. We have a lot of inflation. Much of it transitory supply-side like tariffs and oil. The big questions are: will it build into expectations and will there be demand-side, labor-market tightness. A labor market where employers post jobs but do not fill them is not obviously one that generates wage pressure. The JOLTS series is revision prone, so the picture may look different next month.
The S&P 500 closed at 7609.7798 on 2026-06-02, up 0.13% on the day, which is the kind of modest green candle that would be unremarkable in any other context. The context is that the index has now posted 24 all-time highs in 2026, including 6 straight trading days with a new record. The trajectory here is genuinely strange. On 2026-03-30, the index was down 7% on the year, one of the worst starts to a year in history. Then it staged a 19% nine-week rally, ranking among the biggest nine-week rallies ever. The year-to-date return now sits at 11%, more than double the 5% average year at this point. S&P 500 up 19% nine-week rally. The breadth situation is where it gets interesting. The index hit all-time highs for 5 days in a row and every single one of those sessions saw more stocks decline than advance. That's a potential near-term worry, though historically this pattern hasn't ended bull markets. Technology drove S&P 500 returns in May and was the only sector to outperform the index. Software is now 25% above its 50-DMA, nearly matching semiconductors at 29%. The money keeps coming anyway. US large cap ETFs led inflows for another week for the period ending 2026-05-29, while global ETFs led outflows. The best breadth reading since Memorial Day was a grand total of 13 net advancing issues, which arrived on the very day the winning streak looked ready to snap. The market is making new highs.
Eurozone headline inflation came in at 3.2% year over year in May, with core holding at 2.5%. Eurozone headline inflation: 3.2%. euro share of total official foreign reserves: 15%. Gold closed at $4,517.70 on 2026-06-02, up roughly 0.95% on the day.
Data center construction spending: $50 billion. Google's existing debt sits at just 1.6% of its equity market cap. Google could issue $80 billion of debt without blinking and is in the enviable position of having as much issuance flexibility as any company on the planet. Google has been handing shares to employees who then sell into the market for its entire history. That is the real novelty: not dilution per se, but the shift away from buybacks that had previously offset it.
Here is where the labor market stands for your paycheck.
Continuing claims: 1,786,000, up 0.85% on the week
Unemployment rate: 4.30, flat 0.00% on the month