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Stocks open mostly higher on Wall Street

NEW YORK — Stocks are mostly higher in early trading on Wall Street after a measure of private sector hiring came in better than analysts were expecting.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose two points to 1,447 shortly after the opening bell Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite rose 10 points to 3,129.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged down two points to 13,478.

ADP, a company that processes payroll data, says businesses added 162,000 jobs last month. That was better than economists had forecast.

The big economic report this week comes Friday, when the government reports how many jobs the country added in September and updates the unemployment rate. The rate was 8.1 percent in August.

European markets are mostly higher. Asian markets closed mixed.

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