Nasdaq opens higher, boosted after Alphabet results

Stocks opened mostly higher Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lifted after upbeat earnings from Google parent Alphabet Inc. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 50 points, or 0.1%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 4,565. The Nasdaq advanced 0.8% to 14,463. Alphabet shares were up 9%. An estimate of private-sector hiring by Automatic Data Processing showed a fall in payrolls, though economists and analysts noted the reading was distorted by the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

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