US stock market opens higher ahead of Fed decision

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK

The U.S. stock market opened higher Wednesday ahead of a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

There was a moment of silence before the first bell at the New York Stock Exchange for the victims of Tuesday's deadly attack in New York City.

The Dow Jones added 90 points to begin trading at 23,467 points, and the S&P 500 rose 9 points to start the day at 2,584 points.

The Nasdaq climbed 29 points to open the first trading day of the month of November at 6,756 points.

At the opening, Facebook shares gained 1.2 percent. The social networking giant will release its third quarter earnings after the closing bell.

The Fed is highly unlikely to increase its benchmark interest rate at the conclusion of its two-day meeting, according to experts.

Investors and markets, however, will closely look for clues about a December rate hike and reasons behind inflation remaining persistently low in the central bank's monetary policy to be released at 1800 GMT.

Jobs report, oil

The U.S. private sector added 235,000 jobs in October, ADP and Moody's Analytics announced earlier, beating market expectation of a 200,000 increase.

Crude oil prices in the global market have continued to hover around their highest level since July 2015.

At the first bell, international benchmark Brent crude was trading at $61.43 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was at $54.95 a barrel.

Analysts said crude prices could gain further if there is an increase in the U.S.' weekly crude oil inventories and production, which will be announced later by the Energy Information Administration.