While you were sleeping: UPDATED Wall St rises ahead of jobs report

A rally in healthcare shares helped US stocks rise, though some investors were wary of making big moves ahead of Friday’s jobs report.

This could offer hints about the pace of interest-rate increases. Opec's failure to agree on an output ceiling also weighed on sentiment, though Saudi Arabia's new energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, said it did not seek to boost its output.

"There is no reason to expect Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Mr Falih told reporters when asked whether Saudi Arabia could accelerate production, according to Reuters. "We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way."

Brent crude traded 0.6% higher at $US50.05 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was 0.3% stronger at $US49.17.

"We know it's extremely difficult for Opec to reach any kind of agreement because the countries don't have the same agendas," Pierre Mouton, who helps manage about $US9 billion at Notz Stucki & Cie in Geneva, told Bloomberg.

"Maybe they would have done something if oil prices were at $US40 or below. With oil near $US50, there is less incentive."

Dow gains 49 points

On Wall Street , the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 48.89 points, or 0.3%, to 17,838.56. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index advanced 0.3% to 2105.26 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.4% higher at 4971.36.

Healthcare stocks gained the most in the S&P 500, rising 1.1% to erase their 2016 losses and are now up 0.3% for the year. Aetna filed documents for a bond offering to fund its acquisition of Humana, a signal the company believes the deal is on track. Humana rose 4.7% and Aetna gained 3.8%.

Healthcare companies were also among the biggest gainers in the Dow, with Johnson & Johnson rising 1.5% on news that it would acquire hair-care company Vogue International, and UnitedHealth Group climbing 0.9%.

An ADP Research Institute report showed US private payrolls rose 173,000 last month, following a revised increase of 166,000 jobs in April. Separately, a Labor Department report showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 1000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 for the week ended May 28.

Investors are now awaiting the US government's jobs data, set for release on Friday. It's expected to show employment increased by 162,000 jobs last month after rising by 160,000 in April, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.9% in May, from 5% in April, according to a Reuters poll.

"Labour market conditions are stable, which is all the reassurance the Fed will need to act soon," Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, told Reuters.

Rate hike prospects

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to start its next two-day policy meeting on June 14, which Fed officials have labelled as "live" for a potential rate hike.

"As long as job growth is north of 100,000 for May, rate hikes are still a strong possibility," Guy Lebas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, told Bloomberg.

"Whether that's June, July or September is a matter of fine tuning."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a gain of nearly 0.1% from the previous close.

The UK's FTSE 100 index fell 0.1%, while France's CAC 40 index retreated 0.2%. Germany's DAX index eked out a 0.03% increase.
(BusinessDesk)