Reports on services industries and private payrolls due Wednesday may shed some light on growth and the timing of the next Federal Reserve rate hike as traders await Friday's jobs data.
"I'm nervous about what the employment report will be. We have ADP tomorrow, which is a precursor to Friday's report," said Bryce Doty, senior fixed income manager at Sit Investment Associates.
The ADP payrolls report scheduled to be released at 8:15 a.m. EDT on Wednesday is expected to show creation of 170,000 jobs for September, versus the 177,000 print for the prior month. While analysts said the figure does not necessarily track the nonfarm payrolls report due later in the week, any change in momentum for the ADP data could be significant.
Later in the morning Markit's services PMI and the ISM nonmanufacturing reports are due for release. Analysts polled by Reuters estimate the ISM services report to come in at 53 for September, after coming in at 51.4 in August.
Other data due for release Wednesday morning include weekly mortgage applications, and international trade and factory orders for August.
Oil prices will also be in focus on Wednesday with the expected inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. crude oil futures settled 12 cents lower at $48.69 a barrel Tuesday but rose above $49 a barrel in post-settle trade after American Petroleum Institute data showed a surprisingly large 7.6 million barrel drawdown in crude stockpiles last week, Reuters said.
The recovery in oil prices to near $50 a barrel is a sign for some that inflationary pressures will only increase.
"The market has to get used to the idea that inflation is rising for a reason," said John Canally of LPL Financial.
"Some of the more hawkish Fed governors have been preaching that for a while," he said. "Now some market participants may have caught onto that."
Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker is set to speak Wednesday at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. EDT on whether Fed governance needs reform.
Lacker is not a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee this year. On Tuesday he said he would have voted in favor of a September hike and that keeping rates too low could lead to a rise in inflation.
"It seems that some of the Fed speakers have a mild impact on rates. Monetary policy normalization will probably come in December," said Andres Jaime, global FX and rates strategist at Barclays.
The hawkish comments supported a rise in U.S. Treasury yields. The yield hit 0.834 percent and the 10-year Treasury yield touched 1.683 percent, both their highest since Sept. 21, when the last Fed meeting concluded.
Yields also edged higher after a Bloomberg report citing unidentified euro zone central bank officials said that the European Central Bank will likely wind down bond purchases before the conclusion of quantitative easing.
The ECB said in a statement to CNBC that, "The Governing Council has not discussed these topics, as President Mario Draghi said at the last press conference and during his recent testimony at the European Parliament."
Hillary Clinton, the candidate markets favor more to win the election, also continued to gain momentum over Donald Trump. Clinton had a 46 percent to 40 percent lead over Trump, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll.
Those three factors of the Fed, ECB and elections "are going to continue driving markets," Jaime said.
U.S. stocks closed slightly lower Tuesday, weighed on by increased expectations for a Fed rate hike. The U.S. dollar index jumped to its highest in nearly two months, while gold fell more than 3 percent to settle at its lowest since June 23, just before the surprise U.K. vote to leave the European Union.
Pound sterling hit a 31-year low of $1.2721, extending recent losses after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's weekend announcement that the country will begin the official process of leaving the European Union "no later than the end of March."
"Between yesterday and today it's a little repositioning ahead of what could be a rather eventful fourth quarter here," said Katie Nixon, chief investment officer at Northern Trust Wealth Management.
Those events include corporate earnings, the November U.S. presidential election and a potential Fed rate hike in coming months.
"I think the data right now at the margin is not supportive. It doesn't suggest the Fed's in a hurry to raise rates," Nixon said. She expects one rate increase over the next 12 months.
Also on Wednesday, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is scheduled to give opening remarks at 9:30 a.m. EDT at an event on "early childhood development in Indian country."
Monsanto, Acuity Brands, Constellation Brands, and RPM International are among companies set to release earnings ahead of the open Wednesday, while Yum Brands is scheduled to post quarterly results after the close.
— Reuters contributed to this report.