U.S. stocks rose modestly on Wednesday, in a holiday-shortened trading session, but enough for the S&P 500 to notch a intraday high.

Investors were reacting to a weaker-than-expected Automatic Data Processing Inc. private-sector labor report, which showed that the U.S. added 102,000 nonfarm jobs for June, less than economists were expecting, with growth being driven by the service-producing sector and hurt by small businesses. U.S. equity markets will close at 1 p.m., three hours earlier than usual ahead of Independence Day on Thursday when markets will be closed for the day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 64 points, or 0.2%, at 26,850, trading above its Oct. 3 closing high, while the S&P 500 index hit an intraday all-time peak at 2,981.66. The S&P 500 is on pace to book four closing records in a row. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2% at 8,126, within a 1% of its closing record set on May 3. Meanwhile, haven assets also were gaining, partly on the back of the nomination of expected easy-money candidates International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde, who was nominated to replace Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank and a pair of nominations by President Donald Trump for the Federal Reserve board. The 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.96%, hanging around its lowest level since 2016. Bond prices rise as yields fall. In corporate news, shares of Symantec Corp. jumped at the open after reports that chip maker Broadcom Inc. was in talks to buy the antivirus software company. Separately, shares of electric-car maker Tesla Inc. were up sharply after the company beat expectations for car deliveries late Tuesday.

Source : Marketwatch