By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks began Wednesday with robust gains after data showed companies adding more jobs than expected in October and ahead of a statement on the economy and monetary policy from the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +1.20% added 149.77 points to 11,807.73. The blue-chip benchmark lost 573 points — nearly 4.7% — in the first two sessions this week.
The S&P 500 Index SPX +1.42% rose 17.21 points to 1,235.49.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP +0.84% added 27.65 points to 2,634.61.
For every stock that fell nearly eight rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where 65 million shares traded as of 9:40 a.m. Eastern.
Earlier, Automatic Data Processing reported U.S. companies added 110,000 workers in October, with the bulk of the increase in private payrolls coming in the service sector. ADP also revised higher its count for September. Read more on private-sector jobs growth for October and September revision.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.