Stocks are higher on positive employment data

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

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