NEW YORK, July 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. equities gained in the holiday-shortened trading session Wednesday amid Wall Street's heightened expectations on potential interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, driven by a slew of newly-released weak data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 179.32 points, or 0.67 percent, to 26,966.00. The S&P 500 increased 22.81 points, or 0.77 percent, to 2,995.82. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 61.14 points, or 0.75 percent, to 8,170.23.

All of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors closed higher, with real estate and consumer staples up 1.47 percent and 1.36 percent, respectively, outperforming the rest.

The U.S. private sector added 102,000 jobs from May to June, payroll data company Automatic Data Processing reported on Wednesday. The reading fell short of economists' expectations of 140,000 new jobs polled by Econoday.

"Job growth has slowed sharply in recent months, as businesses have turned more cautious in their hiring," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics.

Meanwhile, U.S. non-manufacturing index registered 55.1 percent in June, lower than the May reading of 56.9 percent, according to a report by the Institute for Supply Management.

While indicating continued growth in the non-manufacturing sector, the rate marked the index's lowest reading since July 2017, showed the report.

The lackluster data came as investors are pricing high on possible rate cut moves from the U.S. central bank in order to spur growth.

Market expectations for a July rate cut are at 100 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

The stock market was closed earlier in observance of Independence Day on July 4. Enditem

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