U.S. Stocks Rise Modestly After Data

U.S. stocks tallied mild gains on Wednesday as U.S. economic reports offered better-than-expected readings on the labor market and the services sector.

Two days before the Labor Department’s September payrolls data, Automatic Data Processing reported 162,000 jobs added to private payrolls in September, more than the 152,000 Dow Jones Newswires-compiled consensus, and lower than the prior month’s revised 189,000.

“The ADP report looked pretty good, that should give some positive hope to the overall market, which is experiencing a migration of concern from areas such as Greece and the fiscal cliff over to the third-quarter earnings season,” said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners in New York.

And, the Institute for Supply Management’s September reading on the services sector also topped expectations, coming in at 55.1 versus 53.7 in August, with the latest level the best since March.

“The U.S. economy is hanging in there, especially compared to its other developed world brethren in Europe,” emailed Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak.

“But with sub 2% GDP growth, it’s doing so barely with little cushion to absorb any further overseas weakness,” Boockvar added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.29% gained 11.13 points to 13,493.49.

The S&P 500 index SPX +0.40% rose 2.50 points to 1,448.25, with consumer discretionary and technology faring best among its 10 industry groups.

The Nasdaq Composite COMP +0.45% added 10.78 points to 3,130.82.

Advancers ran just ahead of decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where nearly 112 shares traded as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern. Composite volume approached 620 million.

Market Watch