Stocks advance modestly in early trading

Dec. 5, 2012 at 9:49 AM ET

Stocks are opening mostly higher on Wall Street as traders hope for more economic stimulus measures from China. 

Citigroup rose 4 percent after the bank said it would slash 11,000 jobs. 

Shortly after the opening bell Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 52 points at 13,003. 

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up three points at 1,410. The Nasdaq composite slipped three points to 2,993. 

Internet radio company Pandora Media predicted a loss in the fourth quarter, a bad surprise for investors. The stock plunged 14 percent. 

The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.9 percent after the Chinese government pledged to maintain policies intended to strengthen the economy. China also said it was willing to "fine tune" those policies and make them more effective. 

Chinese Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said the country would maintain its fine-tuning of economic policies in 2013 to ensure stable economic growth. That sparked a rally in Chinese shares. Among his key priorities, Xi listed tax reform, urbanization and allowing the market to play a bigger role in setting resource prices. 

"Investors' bullish receptors were earlier tickled by overnight events in China, where the new leadership announced a drive towards 'urbanization', which means more infrastructure investment," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York. 

"At the same time, rules preventing insurance companies from taking a larger stake in banking companies were relaxed." 

Weighing on market sentiment was data that showed U.S. private-sector employers added 118,000 jobs in November, shy of economists' expectations. 

U.S. stocks finished slightly lower in quiet trading Tuesday as the back-and-forth wrangling over the U.S. budget gave investors little reason to act. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.