Stock Futures Hold Gains After ADP Jobs Report

The higher-than-expected July figure and the revision suggests a better print than the consensus is currently pricing in for Friday's much-anticipated nonfarm payrolls report, which is plus 100,000, said Ian Lyngen, strategist at CRT. "That said, the ADP has been over estimating NFP by roughly 50k on average over the last four months, so if anything that takes some of the upside from this morning's release," he cautioned.

"The relationship in any given month between the ADP report and the monthly payroll report is strained at best but the better than expected ADP July data does support our position that the monthly payroll report will come in better than expected," said Greenhaus.

The Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index for July comes out at 10 a.m. It's expected to have rebounded to 50.2 from 49.7 in June. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

The Department of Commerce reports on June construction spending at 10 a.m. as well. The consensus expectation is that construction spending increased by 0.4% in the month after rising by 0.9% in May.

Automakers such as Ford(F) and General Motors(GM) issue their car and truck sales reports for July on Wednesday.

September crude oil futures were up 8 cents at $88.14 a barrel. December gold futures were up by $1.90 at $1,616.50 an ounce.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury fell 6/32, raising the yield to 1.489%. The greenback was trading sideways, according to the dollar index.

The FTSE in London was up 0.68% and the DAX in Germany was flat. Yields on Spain and Italy's 10-years eased Wednesday.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng index finished up 0.12% and the Nikkei in Japan closed lower by 0.61% amid tepid manufacturing reports out of China. The data added to hopes that policymakers would act to boost the global economy.

In corporate news, media and entertainment giant Time Warner (TWX) posted second-quarter adjusted earnings of 59 cents a share on revenue of $6.74 billion. Analysts were expecting profit of 59 cents a share on revenue of $6.95 billion.

MasterCard(MA) reported second-quarter earnings of $713 million or $5.65 a share, beating the Wall Street target of $5.57 a share. Net revenue was $1.82 billion, falling short of the consensus estimate of $1.88 billion.