Stocks Opened Higher, Looking to End October on a High Note

U.S. stocks opened solidly higher on Wednesday, putting Wall Street on track to close out a bruising October on a high note. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately advanced 284.36 points, or 1.14%, to 25,159.00. The S&P 500 climbed 35.81 points, or 1.33%, to 2,718.44. The Nasdaq Composite gained 160.92 points, or 2.25%, to 7,322.57.

Oil futures prices on Wednesday crawled up from the over two-month lows struck a day earlier amid a mixed outlook for global supply. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery rose 23 cents, or 0.4%, to $66.41 a barrel. Global benchmark December Brent crude rose 39 cents, or 0.5%, at $76.30 a barrel.

The MNI Chicago business barometer, or Chicago PMI, fell to 58.4 in October from 60.4 in September. While that’s above the 50 level indicating improving conditions, it was the lowest reading since April.

ADP on Wednesday reported 227,000 new private-sector jobs in October. The September total for jobs added was revised down from an initial 230,000 to 218,000, ADP said.

Facebook Inc. reported $5.14 billion in net income for the thirdquarter, which amounts to $1.76 a share, up from $1.59 a share in the year-ago period. Overall, Facebook logged sales of $13.73 billion, up from $10.14 billion in the year-go period. It reported 2.27 billion monthly active users and a daily user count of 1.49 billion, up 10% and 9%, respectively.

General Motors Co (GM.N) on Wednesday posted far higher-than-expected quarterly profit. GM reported third-quarter net income of $2.53 billion, or $1.75 a share, compared with a loss last year of $2.98 billion, or $2.03 a share. Revenue in the quarter rose 6.4 percent to $35.8 billion.