LONDON (ShareCast) - US stocks were mixed on Wednesday as the ADP employment results came out lower than expected and the energy sector continued to rebound from the recent drop in oil prices.
The Dow Jones Industrials fell 0.08% early on to 17,865.84, while the S&P 500 rose 0.02% to 2,067.01 and Nasdaq increased 0.12% to 4,761.48.

The US ADP employment report showed private payroll gains of 208,000 in November, undercutting analyst expectations of 222,000. The ADP figures came ahead of the official employment report from the Labor Department later in the week and are often used as a rough guide.

Barclays Research said: "The significant revisions to the ADP employment report limit its usefulness in forecasting; however, we view the slight deceleration in private payroll growth from October as broadly in line with our outlook for private non-farm payroll growth of 190k in Friday's employment report."

Senior US economist Paul Dales from Capital Economics added: "Stepping back a bit from November's data, arguably more important is that both the ADP and official measure of payrolls have risen by more than 200,000 in at least seven of the past eight months."

"We see no reason why that can't continue, thereby forcing the unemployment rate lower and putting more pressure on the Fed to raise interest rates earlier rather than later."

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude futures were rising by 0.8% to hit $67.42 a barrel after Tuesday's drop and over on COMEX, gold futures were moving up 0.46% to $1,204.90.

The dollar was declining against the pound while advancing against the euro and the yen.

In company news, energy stocks were on the rise including Anadarko Petroleum, Devon Energy, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and Conocophillips.

Mining and construction equipment maker Caterpillar gained following Tuesday's revelation that US construction spending had grown 1.1% in October, beating analyst estimates for a rise of 0.6%.

UnitedHealth Group also advanced after its target price was increased by Credit Suisse from $95 to $110 in a research note released on Wednesday.

Wal-mart fell on Wednesday, continuing its decline after a disappointing Thanksgiving weekend.

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