Higher oil prices, jobs data boost US stocks

New York: Wall Street stocks rose Wednesday following solid US hiring data and a rise in oil prices that lifted petroleum-linked equities.

Payroll firm ADP reported that private US companies added 179,000 jobs in July, slightly better than expected.

Dow member Chevron rose 1.0 percent, while Apache gained 3.6 percent and Halliburton 2.1 percent after oil prices advanced following a dip in US gasoline inventories.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,349.59, up 0.2 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent to 2,163.46, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 percent to 5,159.73.