U.S. stocks are set to fall at the opening bell Tuesday, following a sell-off in Asia and Europe precipitated by the biggest fall in Thai stock exchange in 16 years.

Thai shares slumped after the government imposed controls on its currency to limit recent sharp appreciation and foreign capital poured out of the country.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand briefly suspended trade Tuesday after share prices plunged more than 10% when foreign investors took fright at drastic central bank measures to rein in the baht. The main Thai index closed down 14.84%, its biggest drop since 1990.

Thai authorities, worried that the baht's strength would hurt exporters, slapped controls on short-term speculative inflows. Effective Tuesday, all banks are required to hold in reserve for one year 30% of capital inflows that aren't trade- or services-related or repatriation of Thai residents' investments abroad.

For investors, Christmas came early this year.

After weeks of confusing--and contradictory--economic data, Friday's reports showed the best of all possible worlds: tame inflation and moderate economic growth.

"All we wanted from this holiday season was a little more growth and a little less inflation, and Santa looks like he has delivered," Mark Vitner, an economist at Wachovia Securities in Charlotte, N.C., told Reuters. The Labor Department said U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in November, as higher energy and car prices offset increases in costs for homeownership and medical care. Notably, the core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy prices, were also unchanged for November. This was the lowest core inflation seen since June 2005.

"Pretty Shocking"

?The CPI was pretty shocking,? said Stephen Stanley, an economist at RBS Greenwich. ?We?ve been generally thinking inflation was going to be more of a problem.?

Overall, the CPI is up just 2% this year, and the core CPI is up 2.6%. The core CPI, which peaked at 2.9% year-over-year in September, remains above the Fed Reserve?s comfort zone, but it is moving in the right direction.

Meanwhile, industrial production rose 0.2% in November on gains in manufacturing, but that was after a revision showing output had been weaker in October than originally reported. Industrial capacity use was unchanged last month, the Federal Reserve said.

Analysts saw the industrial production data as alleviating worries about the outlook for growth.

"There was no evidence of a broadening out of weakness beyond the construction sector,"  Pierre Ellis, a senior economist at Decision Economics in New York, told Reuters. "Concerns about worse problems with the economy than already perceived will dissipate."

More Data Coming

For those skeptical that about a "soft landing" or "Goldilocks Economy," next week will offer new data. 

On Tuesday, there will be the release of the November producer price index, which includes the Fed?s favorite measure of inflation, the core PCE deflator. RBS Greenwhich's Stanley is looking for an increase of 0.1% in the core PCE deflator.

Also on Tuesday will be November housing starts. On Thursday is the final revision of third-quarter GPD and a final report on third-quarter corporate profits.

Then on Friday will be November durable goods orders.

LONDON - Oil prices retreated from highs reached last week but stayed above $63 a barrel Monday as blasts tore through two oil-company facilities in southern Nigeria.

Prices had risen steadily last week on renewed supply concerns as U.S. inventories fell and after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to cut output in February.

In Nigeria, the militant group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claimed responsibility for the blasts, warning before the explosions that it had planted three car bombs in the region of creeks and swamps where most of Nigeria's petroleum is pumped.

Two separate private security contractors, speaking on condition of anonymity citing prohibitions on speaking to reporters, said a blast hit an Agip residential compound in Port Harcourt and Shell oil reported an explosion at company facilities in the city where many foreign oil workers live.

Nigeria is the world's 12th largest oil producer and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.

Light sweet crude for January delivery fell 32 cents to $63.11 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe. February Brent on London's ICE Futures exchange fell 42 cents to $63.07 a barrel.

Some analysts have suggested the post-OPEC announcement surge could be the impetus that brings oil prices back above $70 a barrel. In mid-July, crude surpassed $78 a barrel, but then dropped back. The contract has been trading between $58 and $64 a barrel since early October.

Global crude oil inventories are still abundant, but many energy traders see any potential decline in supplies as a reason to bid up prices _ especially against the backdrop of resilient consumer demand.

OPEC pledged to cut production in February by half a million barrels a day. By delaying action until 2007, OPEC left itself a window to decide against a cut, should demand spike higher due to a colder-than-expected winter or stronger-than-expected economy.

In its official statement, the cartel said it expects non-OPEC supplies to grow by 1.8 million barrels a day in 2007, the biggest one-year jump since 1984, and about 500,000 barrels per day more than anticipated global demand growth of 1.3 million barrels.

OPEC's decision followed the U.S. government's weekly report on Wednesday, which showed that inventories of crude oil, heating oil and gasoline fell last week. Crude oil inventories remain well above last year's level, but heating oil and gasoline inventories are now lower than where they were a year ago.

Heating oil futures fell 1.5 cents to $1.7667 a gallon on the Nymex, natural gas futures dropped nearly 22 cents to $7.190 per 1,000 cubic feet, while unleaded gasoline rose 1.36 cents to $1.6999 a gallon.

This morning, the Dow futures are up another 28 points after a record close on Friday of 12,416.76. That was the second record close in a week. ?This too shall pass,? say the wise ? even of a good thing. So investors have to be wondering how long this trend will continue. Regular CNBC guest Liz Ann Sonders spoke with Joe Kernen this morning on ?Squawk Box? to give us her take on what will happen next.

Sonders is the chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. She says the fast money in small-caps and emerging markets these days shows an ?appetite for risk? that could backfire on investors next year. There aren?t many individual investors in these markets, though, so those people should be safe from whatever crisis ends this speculation ? and that?s often how these trends end, she says.

As for next year, the first quarter will depend on the overall economy. Sonders will be watching for volatility in the structure of derivatives and the health of mortgage-backed securities market. If those ? and interest rates ? are low, the market should perform at status quo, she says.

Sonders bets the S&P will see more volatility in 2007, but there?s ?a good chance? the year will end above 2006 levels.