New York, Jul 2 (IANS): US equities finished mixed as investors digested a slew of economic data.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 77.91 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 25,734.97. The S&P 500 was up 15.57 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 3,115.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 95.86 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 10,154.63, Xinhua news agency reported.

Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors closed higher, with real estate and utilities up 2.57 per cent and 2.29 per cent, respectively, leading the gainers. Energy shed 2.49 per cent, the worst-performing group.

Shares of Beyond Meat jumped 5.7 per cent following the news that the company's faux-meat products would be available at retail outlets in China.

On the data front, US private sector employment increased by 2.369 million jobs in June, US payroll data company Automatic Data Processing (ADP) reported Wednesday.

"Small business hiring picked up in the month of June," Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement.

"As the economy slowly continues to recover, we are seeing a significant rebound in industries that once experienced the greatest job losses," Yildirmaz noted.

Economic activity in the US manufacturing sector grew in June, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said Wednesday. The ISM manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) registered 52.6 per cent in June, up 9.5 percentage points from the May reading of 43.1 per cent.

For the second quarter, the Dow rose 17.8 per cent, the S&P 500 advanced nearly 20 per cent and the Nasdaq soared 30.6 per cent. The major averages notched their best quarterly performance in decades.