Flickr / Sam BeebeStocks are higher on Wednesday as the S&P 500 looks to snap a five-day losing streak.
In early trade, the Dow was up 135 points, the S&P 500 was up 14 points, and the Nasdaq was up 33 points.
The rally in stocks comes after an ADP employment report that came in better than expected for December, with private companies adding 241,000 employees in the month, more than the 225,000 that was expected by economists.
This is one of two labor reports - we get initial jobless claims on Thursday morning - that come ahead Friday's big December jobs report.
Expectations for that report are for payroll gains of 240,000.
Oil prices, which have been the market's main focus over the last few months, were still volatile on Wednesday but not nearly as much as has been seen recently. Overnight, Brent crude oil briefly cracked $50 a barrel, but in morning trade il was making a comeback, with WTI moving from around $47 back to nearly $49.
Earlier on Wednesday, inflation data out of the eurozone showed that in December, prices fell 0.2% year-on-year, dragged down by a massive decline in energy prices.
Following this data, the euro hit a fresh nine-year low against the dollar.
Later on Wednesday, we will get the minutes from the Fed's latest FOMC meeting at 2:00 pm ET.
At that meeting, the Fed replace the phrase "considerable time" with "patient" to describe its approach to interest rate hikes.