As a result of increased political unrest following a missile strike on a village in NATO member Poland, European markets are set to open flat.

As a result of increased political unrest following a tragic missile strike on a village in NATO member Poland, European financial markets are anticipated to open Wednesday's trading session flat.

The attack, which left two people dead in a town near the Ukrainian border late Tuesday, will be discussed during a conference of NATO ambassadors scheduled for early Wednesday.

A substantial escalation with Russia has been discouraged by Western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, at the G20 summit in Indonesia. Especially since it is unclear from where the missile was launched and Moscow has denied involvement in the attack.

On Tuesday, Russia launched a volley of missiles targeting the infrastructure in Ukraine, resulting in nationwide power outages.

Over in the U.K., inflation data presented that consumer prices increased 11.1% from a year earlier in October, up from 10.1% the month before and reaching a 41-year high. This suggests that the Bank of England will need to keep raising interest rates for some time to come.

Elsewhere, in the U.S. with President Joe Biden's Democrats keeping control of the Senate, the Republican party is now very close to gaining a majority in the House of Representatives, which would likely lead to two years of deadlock in Washington.

Following the missile attack on Poland and in the wake of conflicting U.S. inventory data, investors were looking for more clarification, which led to a decline in oil prices overnight.

Data from the American Petroleum Institute showed that, contrary to expectations, U.S. crude inventories dropped by over 6 million barrels last week, while gasoline inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels.

Key Events:

• US Core Retail Sales (MoM) (Oct) are due at 13:30 GMT. Analysts forecast 0.4%.
• Crude Oil Inventories are due at 15:30 GMT. Analysts forecast -0.440M.
• UK Inflation Report Hearings are due at 14:15 GMT.

Speakers:

• BoE Gov Bailey at 14:15 GMT.
• FOMC Member Williams at 14:50 GMT.
• ECB President Lagarde at 15:00 GMT.
• Fed Waller at 19:35 GMT.

Earnings:

• NVIDIA
• Target
• Tencent