Major U.S. stock indices continue to rally modestly on Wednesday after an encouraging ADP employment report.

The S&P 500 Index gained 0.20 percent, or 2.23 points, to trade at 1,120.54 at 9:33 am EST. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.21 percent, or 21.54 points, to trade at 10,427.52. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.17 percent.

The basic materials sector is performing well, with Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) gaining 1.49 percent and the American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) gaining 1.82 percent.

ADP released their employment report at 8:15 am EST, showing that payroll declined 20,000 from January to February, in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

ADP's non-farm private payrolls figure declined the least since February 2008. The ADP report asserted heavy snow in the east coast did not heavily skew its data.

However, the weather is expected to depress the BLS estimate of the monthly change in employment for February, but boost it for March, according to ADP. Other analysts have echoed similar sentiments regarding the government's unemployment report.

U.S. unemployment, one area that still does not show significant recovery, will be heavily watched the next two trading sessions; unemployment claims will be released Thursday and non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate will be released Friday.

On Wednesday, market participants are also eyeing the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI, U.S. crude oil inventories, and the Fed Beige Book.

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