Economic calendar: Retail sales from Canada, API report

• European markets set to open higher

• Retail sales data from Canada and Poland

• API report expected to show small drop in oil stockpiles

European stock futures point to a higher opening of the cash session on the Old Continent today. DAX futures are currently trading near 15,450 pts and have closed a bearish price gap from the opening of the week. Turkish lira continued to gain during the Asian session with USDTRY testing 11.00. However, TRY has already trimmed most of today's gains and trades little changed on the day. Natural gas prices are on watch after Russia did not book any capacity for gas flows via the Yamal pipeline today.

As it is the case for most days in the pre-Christmas week, economic calendar is light today. Traders will be offered retail sales data from Poland and Canada that may boost short-term volatility on PLN and CAD markets. Oil traders will wait for the API report release in the evening. Market expects a small drop in US crude oil inventories.

9:00 am GMT - Poland, retail sales for November. Expected: 16.8% YoY. Previous: 14.4% YoY

1:30 pm GMT - Canada, retail sales for October. Expected: 1.2% MoM. Previous: -0.6% MoM

9:40 pm GMT - API report on oil inventories. Expected: -0.2 mb. Previous: -0.81 mb