Stocks open higher Wednesday

NEW YORK (AP) - Encouraging news on the labor market buoyed stocks in early trading Wednesday as investors waited for the Federal Reserve to weigh in on the economy.

The ADP National Employment Report said 203,000 private sector jobs were lost in October, down from the 227,000 jobs lost in September. It was the seventh straight month of declining job losses.

That stirred hopes for a better-than-expected employment report from the Labor Department on Friday — the month's most important piece of economic data.

Later Wednesday morning, the Institute for Supply Management will give an update on activity in the service sector. Growth in the service industry would add significant jobs to the economy.

The market's main focus though is the Federal Reserve and what it has to say about the economy when it wraps up a two-day meeting on interest rates Wednesday afternoon.

Policy makers aren't expected to raise the Fed's benchmark interest rate from a level of near zero, hoping to sustain an economic turnaround by keeping borrowing rates low. But investors will be looking for the Fed's take on the 3.5 percent growth in the economy during the third quarter and whether such growth will persist. The market would also like more guidance on how the Fed plans to withdraw its stimulus programs without threatening the recovery.

Investors have grown fearful that the economic rebound they've been betting on over the past eight months will be fleeting, considering that job losses remain high and consumers still aren't spending freely. Stocks have zigzagged over the past few weeks amid the heightened uncertainty.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones industrials were up 49.19, or 0.5 percent, at 9,821.10. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 6.34, or 0.6 percent, at 1,051.75, and the Nasdaq composite index was up 6.30, or 0.3 percent, at 2,063.62.