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| - Wall Street stocks opened higher Wednesday despite lackluster US employment data, adding to records amid bullish investor sentiment for equities. About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6 percent at 28,821.09. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to 3,546.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.7 percent to 12,026.86. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at records Tuesday, riding a wave of positive sentiment based on expectations for a solid US economic recovery from the coronavirus. The US private sector created 428,000 new jobs in August, payroll services firm ADP said, much below the 1.2 million expected by analysts. The data comes ahead of Friday's much-anticipated government employment report for August. Despite the weak figures, "momentum continues to dominate as the principal driving factor," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare. "Thus far, market participants haven't been given a reason to think -- or fear -- that the bullish momentum is going to end, so they look intent to keep riding the momentum until the bough breaks, the music stops, the wall is hit, or any colloquialism of your choice knocks them squarely in the face as a trend changer." jmb/cs
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