Stock markets around the world have been steady for the most part overnight with many traders either on holiday or preparing for the holidays. US index futures and the Dax are flat this morning while the FTSE is down 0.2%.
The spotlight for today is on crude oil, which is up 0.5% so far today with natural gas jumping 2.2%. A big 4.2 mmbbl drawdown offset last week's surprise API increase (which was an outlier not confirmed by DOE anyway). Oil may remain active through DOE inventories due mid-morning with the street expecting a 2.5 mmbbl drawdown.
Spain's IBEX is down 1.0% today, dragged by its banking sector following a European Court of Justice ruling ordering them to return money to customers related to interest rate floors on mortgages. The impact of this news appears contained to Spain, as the euro is up slightly today.
In currency action, gold and JPY are also up a bit while GBP and CAD are trading down slightly. Thursday brings a flurry of data from several countries before scheduled news drops off for the rest of 2016.