Small-cap stocks rallied into mid-session trading, lifted by a better reading on the country’s sprawling services sector than feared. Additional support was tied to a private employment survey that also was above the worst end of projections, providing some investor calm ahead of Friday’s big monthly Labor Department release on employment. At 12:07 p.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was up 5.64, or 1.24%, at 458.53.

The ISM Non-Manufacturing Report came in at 42.9, which was better than the consensus forecast of 39.1 and which marked the second consecutive monthly gain after the index hit a record low of 37.3 in November. This report essentially provides a glimpse of services sector activity, which accounts for some three-fourths of all economic activity in the U.S. It should be noted that although today’s report was better than expected, it still reflects contraction and historically weak conditions.

Ahead of the opening today, the ADP Employment survey pegged a decline in non-farm payrolls of 522,000 and predicted Friday’s Labor Department report would show a drop of 525,000, which is slightly above the forecast of 500,000, but still better than some of the worst-case scenarios.

Looking at sector activity so far today, metals and mining stocks were doing well, as were semiconductors, forest products, investment banks as well as tire and rubber companies. However, insurance firms, packaged foods companies, entertainment firms, . . .

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