Economic calendar: DOE report, second-tier data from US

• European markets set to open slightly lower

• US trade balance and pending home sales data for November

• DOE report on oil inventories

Indices from Asia moved lower following the downbeat Wall Street session. However, moods began to improve as the European session approached and now futures markets point to a slightly lower opening. Once again there are no economic releases from Europe scheduled for release so morning trading is expected to be calm. Things get a bit more interesting in the afternoon with data releases from the United States - trade balance, pending home sales, oil stockpiles report. Unfortunately, trade balance and pending home sales reports rarely move markets. DOE report may trigger some volatility on the oil market if a big beat or miss is spotted. API report released yesterday pointed to a drop more or less in-line with expectations.

1:30 pm GMT - US, goods trade balance for November. Expected: -$89.0 billion. Previous: -$82.9 billion

3:00 pm GMT - US, pending home sales for November. Expected: 0.5% MoM. Previous: 7.5% MoM

3:30 pm GMT - DOE report on oil inventories.

• Oil inventories. Expected: -3.2 mb (API: -3.1 mb)

• Gasoline inventories. Expected: -0.1 mb (API: -0.3 mb)

• Distillate inventories. Expected: -0.1 mb (API: -0.7 mb)