By Liz Moyer

Investing.com — U.S. stock opened higher Wednesday, as investors get ready to absorb a series of job numbers that may provide greater clarity about the economic direction.

At 9:47 AM ET, the rose was 68 points or 0.2%. The rose 0.4% and rose 1.1% respectively.

On Wednesday, employers will have approximately 11.4 million open jobs. This is slightly lower than last month’s. Jerome Powell (Federal Reserve Chair) has indicated that he would like to correct the imbalance between supply and demand in the employment market. Companies have had to hike wages to recruit workers. There are currently 1.9 jobs available for each unemployed worker. Analysts expect Thursday’s new unemployment claims to continue the trend of the previous week.

Friday’s government job report will be available. Analysts predict that 325,000 additional non-farm job openings were created in May, compared to 428,000 in April.

Inflation data from the latest quarter showed that prices have slowed but gasoline prices are likely to continue rising. The AAA reported that the national average gasoline price rose to $4.67 per gallon. It’s an increase from the $3.05 per gallon that was recorded one year ago.

Salesforce.com Inc shares rose 13% following the increase in full-year profit projections and strong demand. 

Capri Holdings Ltd shares rose by more than 4% following a report of $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) that was better than anticipated. Analysts predicted EPS at 82 Cents.

Oil prices rose. It was 2.3% higher at $117.36 per gallon. And it was 2.2% higher at $118.16/gallon. Flat at $1.848 an ounce.