PRESENTED BY CYCURION

CLOSING BELL
Hiring Slowdown Made For Slow Trading

The market barely climbed Wednesday, to the point it makes you wonder why they even turned it on today. Employment numbers from ADP showed a hiring slowdown. 400k ADP private clients added just 37k jobs last month, below the 110k estimated, and nearly half the 60k added in April.

Trump did not like it, and called out Powell to cut rates. The ADP figure comes before the government nonfarm census data to arrive with the unemployment rate on Friday. 👀

Today’s issue covers Reddit Sues Anthropic, And Has An Insider Witness… Claude AI, Hold Up Apple, BaBa, Where Do You Think You Two Are Goin’?, and Thank God For Mankind’s Ability To Make Friends. 📰

With the final numbers for indexes and the ETFs that track them, 6 of 11 sectors closed green, with communications $XLC ( ▲ 0.14% ) leading and energy $XLE ( ▼ 0.1% ) lagging.

S&P 500 $SPY ( ▼ 0.48% ) 5,970

Nasdaq 100 $QQQ ( ▼ 0.75% ) 21,721

Russell 2000 $IWM ( ▲ 0.04% ) 2,098

Dow Jones $DIA ( ▼ 0.23% ) 42,427

STOCKS
Reddit Sues Anthropic, And Has An Insider Witness… Claude AI 🤖 

Reddit sued the AI startup Anthropic, alleging that the company illegally scraped Reddit user data to train its AI models without permission.

The lawsuit, filed in California, claims Anthropic accessed Reddit’s servers more than 100,000 times, even after assurances that the firm had stopped. Reddit said that alone was not that big of a deal, but Anthorpic did not pay up for the service.

The lawsuit alleges Anthropic refused to enter a licensing agreement, unlike formal language model training deals like Reddit holds with OpenAI and Google. The complaint seeks damages and an injunction to prevent Anthropic from using Reddit data commercially. Anthropic denied the claims and any wrongdoing, and said it is prepared to defend itself in court.

Anthropic is not just a stranger stealing AskReddit threads in the night. The firm is in Reddit’s neighborhood— just ten minutes down the road in San Francisco. The firm has raked in more than $3B in revenue from its AI models, according to Reuters.

As a part of the suit, Reddit asked Ahtropics AI Claude to cough up its sources, and the AI said it was trained on at least some Reddit data. 👀 

The Reddit logo appears on the screen of a smartphone that rests on top of a laptop keyboard in Reno, United States, on November 28, 2024. (Photo by Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

SPONSORED
Cycurion, Inc. $CYCU Achieves Full Year Profitability & More

Cycurion, Inc. $CYCU could emerge as a cybersecurity force with two major new wins: a $33M state-level higher ed contract and a $6M award from a top municipal transportation agency. CYCU just posted $17.8M in 2024 revenue, up +58.9% YoY, with $2.3M in adjusted EBITDA and $1.2M in net income—marking its first full year of profitability. EPS improved to $0.07 basic and $0.01 fully diluted.

With growing federal, state, and municipal trust, CYCU is scaling fast in the high-demand cybersecurity sector. Government-grade protection, real profits. 🔐

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

COMPANY NEWS
Hold Up Apple, BaBa, Where Do You Think You Two Are Goin’? 🍎 

Apple and Alibaba’s AI rollout in China faces delays due to regulatory hurdles linked to escalating U.S.-China trade tensions. If it sounds like this might be trade bargaining, you might be spot on:

The Cyberspace Administration of China has stalled approval for Apple Intelligence, citing political uncertainties. Apple partnered with Alibaba to comply with Chinese AI regulations, but the deal has drawn scrutiny from both sides. Initially, U.S. officials were concerned about data security and technology transfer.

The delays put Apple at a disadvantage against local competitors like Huawei, which have already integrated advanced AI features into their devices.

According to Yahoo Finance, Apple faces mounting pressure to prove its AI capabilities at WWDC 2025, its major tech announcement week starting June 9th.

Analysts warn that Apple has lagged behind rivals like Google and Microsoft in generative AI. AI tech seems like Apple’s bread and butter- consumers have had access to voice commands with Siri for years, but consumers are looking for more than parlor tricks, according to Clara Gold, founder of CallGigiAI, speaking at a16z’s tech week panels.

Apple recently delayed a planned upgrade to Siri until later this year.

The firm originally debuted Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024 with features like Writing Tools and Genmoji, but critics argue that Apple has yet to deliver a competitive AI ecosystem. Can you blame them? How many times have you used Apple AI? 📱 

Apple also showed off its language model tech last summer

POPS & DROPS
Top Stocktwits News Stories 🗞️ 

$CHPT ( ▼ 22.49% ) fell 14% post-market after ChargePoint reported worse-than-expected guidance and weak forward guidance

MongoDB $MDB ( ▲ 12.84% ) climbed 13% after hours, reporting earnings that topped estimates.

$PVH ( ▼ 17.96% ) fell about 3% after hours when it reported earnings. The Calvin Klein brand owner slashed its full-year outlook and missed revenue estimates.

Amazon said it plans to invest $10 billion in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and AI infrastructure. The project, in Richmond County, will fund data centers, AI research facilities, and workforce training programs, positioning North Carolina as a hub for advanced technology. Governor Josh Stein called it one of the largest investments in state history.

$APLD ( ▼ 3.62% ) continued to soar after the firm inked a 15-year lease agreement with ‘Ai hyperscaler’ CoreWeave. Applied will supply 250 megawatts of data center power, with an option to expand by another 150MWh, bringing the grand total to nearly 400MWh. Applied said it would generate $7B in revenue over the course of the contract, as CoreWeave sucks up all the brain power it can get for AI computing.

Dollar Tree fell after the firm warned tariffs could cut its earnings in H2 of this year. The company expects earnings to re-accelerate in H2 as it mitigates the impact of higher import costs. Shares fell 10% following the announcement.

$ON ( ▼ 1.47% ) climbed as the top stock on the S&P 500, matched with $MRVL ( ▼ 1.72% ). Shares rose for the second day after a Tuesday speech from CEO Hassan El-Khoury. The chief said the firm is turning things around amidst a demand recovery, particularly in the company’s second-largest industrial market.

CrowdStrike shares fell nearly 6% after analysts downgrades following a Q1 revenue miss and soft guidance. Bank of America lowered its rating from Outperform to Neutral, but raised its price target to $470 from $420. Canaccord downgraded the stock to Hold, increasing its target to $475. Evercore ISI also lowered its rating, citing a more cautious stance on unresolved company issues.

$META ( ▼ 0.48% ) climbed after their deal with Constellation Energy. JPMorgan raised its target to $735 with confidence in the energy deal. Analysts atJefferies said Meta paid about $80/MWh in the nuclear power deal, a bit of a cost edge over Microsoft’s pricier $110/MWh deal for Constellation’s atomic supply.

…EXCEPT DEATH AND ALLIES
Thank God For Mankind’s Ability To Make Friends

President Trump made a surreal ally in Wednesday’s budget banter: Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for eliminating the U.S. debt ceiling.

Trump stated that the debt limit should be scrapped to prevent economic instability, arguing that it is “too devastating to be put in the hands of political people.” Warren echoed the sentiment, urging Congress to pass a bill to remove the borrowing cap permanently.

Speaking of getting along, EU trade negotiators reported progress in discussions with the U.S. despite new steel tariffs imposed by the Trump administration that went into effect today.

EU Trade Rep Maroš Šefčovič said talks with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were going forward, though he criticized the 50% tariff increase on steel and aluminum. The EU has proposed a zero-for-zero deal.

American and European Union flags waving against the sky. (Image Courtesy: Getty Images)

WHAT’S ON DECK
Tomorrow’s Top Things 📋

Economic data: Continuing + initial Jobless Claims (8:30 AM), Exports + Imports + Trade Balance (Apr) (8:30 AM), Unit Labor Costs (QoQ) (Q1) (8:30 AM), Atlanta Fed GDPNow (Q2) (1:00 PM), FOMC Member Harker Speaks (1:30 PM), Fed’s Balance Sheet (4:30 PM). 📊

Pre-Market Earnings: Hello Group ($MOMO), Ciena ($CIEN), Cracker Barrel ($CBRL), Victoria’s Secret ($VSCO). 🛏️

After-Hour Earnings:  Broadcom ($AVGO), Lululemon ($LULU), DocuSign ($DOCU), Petco ($WOOF), Samsara ($IOT), Guess ($GES), Vail Resorts ($MTN), Rubrik ($RBRK). 🎧

P.S. You can listen to all of these earnings calls and more straight from the Stocktwits app or website. You’ll find them on the calendar page and individual symbol pages once they’re set to begin! We’ll see you there. 👍

Links That Don’t Suck 🌐

📰 Want to find the next big AI stock? IBD Digital has everything you need—save $55+ today *

⚠️ GOP Senators’ Demands Push Megabill Price Tag Up

🚗 Musk whips opposition to Trump tax plan: ‘KILL the BILL’

📺️ Meta Talks to Disney, A24 About Content for New VR Headset

😨 Trump calls Powell ‘unbelievable!!!’ as he renews call for lower rates

👀 Fed ‘Beige Book’ economic report cites declining growth, rising prices and slow hiring

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