Wall Street to rise after jobs data, resistance seen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to rise slightly at the open on Wednesday, with the Dow industrials ready to pierce through 17,000, after the U.S. private sector created many more jobs than expected last month.

* U.S. companies hired 281,000 workers in June, marking the biggest monthly increase since November 2012, well above market expectations for 200,000. Other data due includes factory orders and orders for long-lasting goods.

* The Dow and the S&P 500 closed at record highs on Tuesday as manufacturing activity picked up in the United States and Asia and boosted optimism over the health of the global economy.

* The Dow is 44 points, or less than 0.3 percent, from hitting 17,000 and the S&P 500 is less than 1.5 percent away from 2,000. Futures quickly pared gains after the upbeat jobs data, and both round-number levels could serve as psychological barriers.

* S&P 500 e-mini futures were up 2 points and fair value - a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract - indicated a slightly higher open. Dow Jones industrial average e-mini futures <1YMc1> rose 16 points and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures added 4 points.

* Rackspace Hosting shares jumped 9 percent in premarket trading after TechCrunch reported the cloud service provider may take itself private and is in talks with a private equity firm to fund the deal.

* Adding to a recent string of deals that has lifted stocks in the healthcare sector, Roche said it would pay up to $1.725 billion to buy Seragon Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held U.S. biotech company that researches breast cancer treatments.

* Shutterfly shares jumped 11.8 percent in premarket trading after Bloomberg reported that the company working with boutique investment bank Qatalyst Partners to find buyers for itself.

* JPMorgan Chase shares will be in focus after Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said he had been diagnosed with early stage throat cancer but would remain actively involved in the largest U.S. bank's business while in treatment. Shares were down 0.6 percent premarket.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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