US stocks opened mixed Wednesday after a weak November private-sector jobs report reflected the impact of the devastating superstorm Sandy.
After five minutes of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 41.62 points (0.32 percent) at 12,993.40.
The S&P 500-stock index edged up 1.52 points (0.11 percent) to 1,408.57 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 5.74 (0.19 percent) to 2,990.95.
Before the opening bell, payrolls firm ADP reported businesses added just 118,000 jobs in November to the economy, down from 157,000 in October.
Moody's Analytics estimated that Sandy, which battered the Northeast in late October, had sliced 86,000 jobs from the total.
"Abstracting from the storm, the job market turned in a good performance during the month," said Marc Zandi, Moody's chief economist.
US stocks closed slightly lower Tuesday as Washington continued to wrangle over a budget plan that would avoid the year-end "fiscal cliff."
The Dow slipped 0.11 percent, the S&P 500 dipped 0.17 percent and the Nasdaq lost 0.18 percent.
