Wall Street Closes Slightly Higher on Promising Labor Data

Wall Street ended modestly higher on Wednesday on stronger-than-expected U.S. labor and service sector data, but the Dow industrials stumbled by a slide in Hewlett-Packard. HP, the largest U.S. technology company by revenue, forecast that its earnings will slide sharply next year, compared with Wall Street's expectations for flat profits. Data showed growth in the U.S. services sector picked up in September, defying economists' expectations for a slight decrease, while last month, the private sector added more jobs than forecast. The data comes ahead of the closely watched monthly U.S. non-farm payrolls report on Friday.