US open: Stocks advance as Republicans take control of the Senate

US stocks opened higher on Wednesday in the wake of the US mid-term elections, while the dollar strengthened.

Just before 10:00 in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 75.13 points up at 17,458.970, while the S&P 500 advanced 7.23 points to 2,019.330 and the Nasdaq was 12.74 points down at 4,168.971.

Republicans won control of the Senate in the US mid-term elections on Tuesday, strengthening their power in the House of Representatives.

The Tea Party now controls both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006, something which investors hope spell the end political gridlock and the introduction of more pro-business policies.

The result is likely to put President Barack Obama in a difficult position during his two final years of his term, but "the markets don't appear at all concerned about this", Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari UK, said.

"In the past, this outcome has been good for the markets and therefore the result is being well received once again."

Meanwhile, private-sector hiring rose to a four-month high in October, with payrolls rising by 230,000 after an upwardly-revised 225,000 gain in September. Analysts had pencilled in a figure closer to 220,000.

“The frequent and large revisions to the ADP employment report limit its usefulness in forecasting," Barclays analyst Jesse Hurwitz said.

"However, we view the October report as largely consistent with our outlook for non-farm payroll gains of 225k in Friday’s employment report from the Labor Department."

The ISM non-manufacturing index will also be in focus after the opening bell and is expected to fall to 58 in October from 58.6 the month before. This follows data earlier on Wednesday which showed that service-sector activity growth eased across China, the Eurozone and UK last month.

Time Warner rose in pre-market trade after beating analysts’ forecasts with its quarterly results. The media group also lifted its profit guidance, predicting percentage growth in the high teens from $3.51 a share last year. It had previously guided to a low-teens rise.

EOG Resources jumped after the oil and gas company exceeded earnings and revenue forecasts and lifted its full-year production outlook, while Mondelez International rose sharply after the packaged-food producer beat estimates for third quarter earnings.

Tripadvisor sank after disappointing third quarter results, while Fireeye plummeted after missing sales forecasts for the third quarter.

The dollar rose sharply against the yen and registered smaller gains against the pound and the euro, while gold futures slid back to $1,143.90.

The yield on the 10-Year US Treasury note rose three basis points to 2.36%, while the yield on the 30-year note advanced two basis points to 3.07% and the five-year Treasuries climbed by the same margin to 1.64%.

West Texas intermediate rebounded after heavy losses earlier in the week and was trading at just under $77.5 a barrel, while Brent crude price continued to fall and it was trading at just under $82.5 a barrel.