Economic calendar: US retail sales data, Fed and ECB speakers

• European indices set for slightly higher opening

• US retail sales data in the spotlight

• Speeches from ECB and Fed members

Futures markets point to a slightly higher opening of today's cash session for major European indices. This comes after a rather upbeat Asian session. The Japanese yen is in the spotlight today after the Bank of Japan failed to make another move, like widening the band around target yield. As a result, Japanese currency slumped over 2% against the US dollar. However, part of the losses was recovered ahead of the European cash session open and now USDJPY is up around 1.5% on the day.

When it comes to data releases and events scheduled for the later part of the day, there are some noteworthy points in today's calendar. US retail sales report for December is a key macro report to watch. It is expected to show another month of MoM declines in both, headline and core, gauges. Apart from retail sales data, trades will also be offered US PPI print but as CPI data for December was already released, PPI report may be ignored by the markets. A number of ECB and Fed members is set to speak and those speeches may be source of additional volatility.

10:00 am GMT - Euro area, CPI inflation for December (final). 

• Headline. First release: 9.2% YoY

• Core. First release: 5.6% YoY

1:30 pm GMT - US, PPI inflation for December.

• Headline. Expected: 6.8% YoY. Previous: 7.4% YoY

• Core. Expected: 5.6% YoY. Previous: 6.2% YoY

1:30 pm GMT - US, retail sales for December.

• Headline. Expected: -0.8% MoM. Previous: -0.6% MoM

• Ex-autos. Expected: -0.4% MoM. Previous: -0.2% MoM

2:15 pm GMT - US, industrial production for December. Expected: -0.1% MoM. Previous: -0.2% MoM

9:40 pm GMT - API report on oil inventories. Expected: -1.8 mb. Previous: +14.86 mb

Central bankers' speeches

• 9:15 am GMT - ECB Villeroy

• 10:30 am GMT - ECB Schnabel

• 12:15 pm GMT - ECB Villeroy

• 2:00 pm GMT - Fed Bostic

• 2:30 pm GMT - Fed Bullard

• 6:00 pm GMT - Fed George

• 7:00 pm GMT - Fed Harker

• 8:15 pm GMT - Fed Harker

• 10:00 pm GMT - Fed Logan

US earnings reports

• Charles Schwab (SCHW.US) - before market open

• Alcoa (AA.US) - after market close

• Kinder Morgan (KM.US) - after market close