Wall Street is getting ready for a critical report that could relieve or raise fears that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at a faster pace.
U.S. inflation figures published by the Labor Department come out at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Fears of higher inflation sparked several volatile days of trading on Wall Street, and wiped out the Dow’s gains through the first six weeks of the year.
If Wednesday’s number is in line with economists’ expectations — about 1.9% compared with a year ago — then markets could rally. If the number is a few notches higher, then markets could face another difficult day.