North American stocks moved modestly higher at the start of trading on Wednesday, after a survey of private sector employment in the United States showed slight but better-than-expected gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30 points or 0.3 per cent, to 10,666. The broader S&P 500 rose 4 points or 0.3 per cent, to 1124. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 58 points or 0.5 per cent, to 11,840.
Automatic Data Processing reported that U.S. employers added 42,000 jobs in July - sluggish gains that nonetheless topped expectations of 39,000 new jobs. The report comes before the official non-farm payrolls report from the Labor Department, due to be released on Friday.
Barnes & Noble Inc. surged 20.2 per cent after the struggling book retailer announced that it was putting itself up for sale. Priceline.com Inc. rose 20 per cent after the online travel agency reported second quarter earnings rose 72 per cent, soaring past expectations.
As well, Toyota Motor Corp. rose 1.3 per cent after it beat expectations with its fiscal first quarter earnings, reportedly the strongest earnings for the Japanese car maker in two years.
Meanwhile, Research In Motion Ltd. fell 2.3 per cent, a day after the company unveiled a new BlackBerry model and operating system.