The European Central Bank will almost certainly leave the monetary policy unchanged following the meeting on Thursday, but it can recognize a sharp slowdown in economic growth, increasing the chances of postponing further normalization of policy. The ECB completed a € 2.6 trillion ($ 2.96 trillion) bond buying program in December and confirmed the forecast that the regulator is likely to raise the interest rate later this year.

Wall Street looked set for big gains on Tuesday, the first trading day of 2017, with all eyes on the Dow Jones Industrial Average as it zeroes in on the historical 20,000 mark. After coming within a hair's breadth of the milestone in December as part of a post-election rally, the Dow will make a fresh attempt at breaching the mark.

The USD climbed back towards a 14-year high on Tuesday as the Japanese yen fell after the Bank of Japan held policy steady and fallout from attacks in Germany and Turkey subdued the euro. European shares were steady, with unease over the attacks balanced by gains by bank shares and the Milan market.

Oil prices rose on Monday as a weaker dollar and the delay of new Libyan oil exports boosted benchmarks, amid expectations of tighter crude supply going into 2017. Brent crude futures traded at $55.47 per barrel, up 26 cents from their last close. Analysts said the increases, which built on gains of around 2 percent on Friday, were driven by a delay in crude oil supplies from Libya.

New Year’s holidays have passed, but the hangover for the single European currency could take a long time. This may well be related with the upcoming on January 25 early parliamentary elections in Greece, which according to the polls is likely to win the left Syriza party and its leader Alexis Tsipras.

Yesterday, oil prices continued to decline. Early morning futures for Brent crude fell by 28 cents to 82.06 dollars per barrel, and futures for WTI - by 34 cents to 77.06. Earlier, when in the US was still Monday, Brent crude oil price fell to four-year low. Since the end of June, world oil prices have fallen by 30%. Futures price has gone down in the evening of the same day under the influence of statements of Kuwaiti Oil Minister that he does not expect a decision to reduce production by OPEC. "I do not think that any reduction in production will happen. We believe that prices will stabilize once the market absorbs the excess supply of oil," he said, speaking at a conference in the United Arab Emirates on Monday. OPEC countries are meeting on November 27. Their collective production quotas are now 30 million barrels per day. Analysts have no consensus on what decision OPEC will make regarding production volumes. Exchanges in London and New York immediately responded to the news with downtrend.

The European Banking Supervision Service announced that 24 large banks have not passed the EU stress tests. In this list: nine Italian banks, three Greek and three Cypriot banks. There were tested 123 banks of the EU member states to identify their ability to withstand another financial crisis.