Stock Futures Up; Private Sector Adds 43,000 Jobs

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Stock futures pointed to a higher open Wednesday as the private sector added more jobs than expected in October, the morning after

Republicans took the House in midterm elections.

Meanwhile, investors eagerly await an expected announcement regarding

additional quantitative easing measures from the

Federal Open Market Committee

when it wraps up its two-day policy meeting in the afternoon.

Futures for the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

were up by 23 points, or 38 points above fair value, at 11,175. Futures for the

S&P 500

were 2 points higher, or 5 points above fair value, at 1195 and

Nasdaq

futures were up by 2 points, or 3 points above fair value.

Stocks ended Tuesday's session with strong gains as a weaker U.S. dollar lifted shares across the energy and basic materials sectors.

Although Wednesday's session brings a slew of new economic data to the market, trading is likely to be light ahead of the FOMC's rate decision at 2:15 p.m. ET. While the highly anticipated statement isn't expected to show any change to key interest rates, the market has been anticipating the announcement of additional quantitative easing measures at the close of the November policy meeting since late summer. According to market strategists, the Fed is expected to enact a second stimulus of around $500 billion, and market watchers will be interested to get more details regarding the both the timeline and the instruments that the Fed will use.

In the first piece of employment data ahead of Friday's government report, Automatic Data Processing said the private sector added 43,000 jobs in October, exceeding expectations for gains of 20,000, according to Briefing.com. That compares to job losses of 2000 in September, which was milder than originally reported declines of 39,000.

At 10 a.m., the Institute for Supply Management's October services index is projected to come in at 53.4 at 10 a.m., after September's reading of 53.2.

Also at 10 a.m., the market will get a read on September factory orders. Economists are anticipating growth of 1.7%, compared with a previous decline of 0.5%.

The Energy Information Administration will give its weekly read on energy inventories at 10:30 a.m. ET. Crude supplies are expected to increase by 2 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 29, according to a Platts poll of analysts. Gasoline stockpiles are slated to add 1.1 million barrels, and distillates are projected to shed 900,000 barrels.

Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said crude inventories lost 4.14 million barrels.

October truck and auto sales will also be released during the afternoon trading session.

Chesapeake Energy

(CHK) - Get Report

,

DryShips

(DRYS) - Get Report

,

Smith Micro

(SMSI) - Get Report

,

Transocean

(RIG) - Get Report

and

Whole Foods

(WFMI)

are among some of the companies reporting after the closing bell.

Time Warner

(TWX)

posted better-than-expected adjusted earnings of 62 cents a share and said third-quarter sales grew 2% to $6.38 billion. Wall Street had been expecting a profit of 53 cents a share on sales of $6.41 million. The media company also hiked its full-year growth outlook to in the high 20% area, from its previous guidance for growth of at least 20%.

Aetna

(AET)

said third-quarter net earnings rose 53% on lower benefits and expenses, topping estimates for a profit of 67 cents a share with earnings of 84 cents a share.

Wellpoint

(WLP)

also exceeded expectations, with earnings of $1.74 a share on sales of $14.33 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $1.57 a share on sales of $14.21 billion.

Lloyds Banking

(LYG) - Get Report

named Antonio Horta-Osorio, head of

Banco Santander's

(STD)

U.K. business, its new CEO. He replaces Eric Daniels, who is stepping down.

In commodity markets, the December crude oil contract added 79 cents to trade at $84.69 a barrel. Meanwhile, the December gold contract gained $1.20 to $1,358.10 an ounce.

The dollar traded lower against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index down by 0.08%, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury note strengthened 8/32, diluting the yield to 2.565%.

Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 2% higher, and Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.06%. The FTSE in London increased 0.2%, and the DAX in Frankfurt added 0.3%.

--Written by Melinda Peer in New York

.

Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.