The equity sell-off and flight to safe havens are both on pause Wednesday as traders await a key look at employment and the latest monetary policy announcement from the Federal Reserve.

After three days of rapid gains, Treasuries are backing up. The 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields are six and eight basis points higher in early trading at 2.05% and 3.09%. (The 10-year yield had been as high as 2.39% on Oct. 28).

The two-year yield is one basis point lower at 0.23%.

Equity futures are up, albeit slightly. S&P 500 futures have recovered 1.5 points to 1,226.10 and Dow futures have risen 22 points to 11,704.

"Given that yesterday's moves took place in a very thinly traded market with several countries in Europe on holiday, including France, Italy and Spain, some payback effect was probably to be expected and thus is not surprising despite the absence of positive news," said Nomura Global Economics.

Light crude oil is up 0.23% at $92.40 per barrel and gold prices are 1.20% higher at $1,732.70.

Key Events Today:

8:15 - Private job growth is expected to improve vaguely in October's ADP Employment Report. Estimates range from 38k to 150k, with the median settling at 100k. The September report showed an expansion of 91k new jobs. (However, that 91k growth was an understatement compared to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' number of 134k.)

"ADP data will guide market expectations for October private payrolls," said Nomura Global Economics, who forecast 135k new private jobs. Last month, Nomura noted that over the past year, the ADP headline figure has been within 50k of the BLS figure just five times and it has missed by 100k or more five times, too.

12:30 - Little fanfare is anticipated for this FOMC Meeting Announcement. The last one was major as the Fed announced Operation Twist in an effort to pull down the yield curve, but economists say if a new injection of quantitative easing is on the way, it won't be this meeting.

"The Fed's last decision point in September left plenty of opportunity to enact policy; this one, well, not so much," said Janney Capital Markets. "With the Fed having announced plans for Operation Twist in mid-September and only begun their asset purchases in mid-October, the economic effects of the program have yet to hit Main Street. In our view, those effects will be minimal, however the Fed policymakers which hope that Op-Twist will have an impact nonetheless need to wait before enacting any follow-up policy."

IHS Global Insight note that opinions at the Fed are highly divided on whether to do more, but the recent improvement in economic data has made a decision less urgent.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will say more about the state of monetary policy when he holds a press conference at 2:15.