Wall Street stocks enjoy modest gains US equity markets started the session on a positive note albeit with modest gains as data showed US unemployment claims rose last week. Investors are awaiting a key measure of the state of the labour market - the government's non-farm payroll data due to be released on Friday. Markets were cheered by Wednesday's ADP payroll data, which showed the US added 162,000 private-sector jobs in September, while the Institute for Supply Management said new orders in the non-manufacturing sector accelerated. The benchmark S&P 500 index added 0.4 per cent to 1,457.04 on Thursday morning with most of the gains led by materials and energy stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 per cent to 13,549.29. Peabody Energy added 3.3 per cent to $22.52 and Murphy Oil Corp rose 2.5 per cent to $59.68. Cliffs Natural Resources , the coal and iron ore producer, rose 2.2 per cent to $38.72. Financial stocks also saw rises, with large banks leading the gains. Morgan Stanley was up 2.5 per cent to $17.45, Citigroup added 1.6 per cent to $34.62, and Bank of America rose 1.4 per cent to $9.20. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was little changed at 3,138.26. Hewlett-Packard shares fell 3.7 per cent to $14.38, adding to a 13 per cent decline during the previous session, when chief executive Meg Whitman warned analysts of lower revenues and earnings in the next quarter. Amazon shares added 0.8 per cent to $258.02 on reports that its newest ereader has been very popular with customers and sold out. Facebook shares enjoyed a 1.6 per cent rise to $22.18 as the social network reached a new milestone of 1bn active users a month, while the number of mobile users rose to 600m. The company's stock has enjoyed a 22 per cent rally since September.