By Victor Reklaitis and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks inched higher Wednesday,
building slightly on the prior day's record-setting advance, as a
better-than-expected report on private-sector hiring underscored
the economy's recent strength.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average remains within striking
distance of 17,000 after coming within two points of that milestone
intraday Tuesday, when the blue-chip index and S&P 500 both
achieved all-time closing highs.
On Wednesday, the Dow industrials(DJI) rose 1 point, or less
than 0.1%, to 16,967, while the S&P 500(SPX) nudged up 1 point
to 1,974. The Nasdaq(RIXF) gained 5 points to 4,463.
The private sector added 281,000 jobs in June, beating
economists expectations for 215,000 new jobs. The ADP release
presages the government's closely watched monthly jobs report,
which will be released Thursday -- a day earlier than usual because
of the July 4th holiday on Friday.
The ADP report has "not been a good indicator" for the jobs
report, but still "the growth bulls will be pleased and the whisper
numbers on payroll will probably rise as the day moves forward,"
said Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities, in
emailed comments Wednesday. (Read more: This changes everything:::
OK, nothing, but ADP still good sign
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-changes-every-ok-nothing-but-adp-still-good-sign-2014-07-02.)
Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at R.W. Baird, said
stocks "might not do much today" after Tuesday's record-setting
advance -- and given the closely watched jobs report that's due
Thursday.
"The market kind of broke out in a sense yesterday," Bittles
told MarketWatch.
Follow MarketWatch's live blog of Wednesday's stock market
action
Government figures on factory orders for May also were released
Wednesday, showing a 0.5% decline. Economists polled by MarketWatch
expected a decrease of 0.4%.
In addition to Wednesday's economic data, investors took in
comments from Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen and IMF Managing
Director Christine Lagarde, with at least one analyst seeing a
"slightly dovish" tone. The S&P 500 rose to a session high as
the full text of Yellen's speech came out, but then quickly pared
its gain.
Among individual stocks, Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ) gained
3%, delivering the best performance among S&P 500 stocks after
the distributor of Corona beer and Svedka vodka posted
better-than-expected quarterly results. Meanwhile, Rackspace
Hosting Inc. (RAX) jumped 8% following a report the cloud-services
company is thinking of going private.
On the downside, GoPro Inc. (GPRO) slid 10%, putting the
video-camera maker's stock on track for its first daily loss since
debuting last week, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) fell 1%
following news late Tuesday that CEO Jamie Dimon has "curable"
throat cancer. (Read more in MarketWatch's Movers & Shakers
column
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jp-morgan-constellation-brands-paychex-are-stocks-to-watch-2014-07-02.)
In other markets, August oil (CLQ4) fell, while gold futures
(GCQ4) edged up. Stocks in Asia finished higher, including a 0.3%
rise of Japan's Nikkei Average , and the Stoxx Europe 600 extended
gains from Tuesday when it notched its strongest performance in two
months.
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