New York, Sep 3 (IANS): US equities finished noticeably higher, with the Dow jumping more than 450 points in its best day since mid-July.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 454.84 points, or 1.59 per cent, to 29,100.50, marking its best single-day rise since July 14. It was also the first close above 29,000 since February for the blue-chip index, Xinhua news agency reported.

The S&P 500 rose 54.19 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 3,580.84. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 116.78 points, or 0.98 per cent, to 12,056.44.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both wrapped up the session at records, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq topping the 12,000 thresholds for the first time.

Ten of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors closed higher, with utilities and materials up 3.12 per cent and 2.28 per cent, respectively, outpacing the rest. Energy dipped 0.42 per cent, the lone declining group.

The moves came despite data showing US companies added fewer jobs than expected last month.

US private-sector companies added 428,000 jobs in August, payroll data company Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported on Wednesday. Wall Street economists had forecast an increase of 1 million private-sector jobs, according to Econoday.

"The August job postings demonstrate a slow recovery," said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, adding "businesses across all sizes and sectors have yet to come close to their pre-COVID-19 employment levels."

US-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower, with six of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P US Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.