Wall Street opens higher as banks rise on strong ADP data

US stocks opened slightly higher on Wednesday as bank stocks gained after a better-than-expected private sector hiring pointed to a healthy labour market, making an interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve next week near certain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.64 points, or 0.11 per cent, at 20,947.4, the S&P 500 was up 1.56 points, or 0.065868 per cent, at 2,369.95 and the Nasdaq composite was up 4.37 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 5,838.30.