A relatively quiet Friday night as far as announcements go, but there is still a huge night ahead for markets.

The EUR/USD pair steadily climbed overnight as the USD showed signs of weakness ahead of the US spending bill meeting. The pair was at lows of $1.21646 at the beginning of the session before climbing throughout the rest of the session. It hit a high of $1.22642, then dropped away before stabilising at its current level of $1.22380. The GBP/USD followed a similar trend steadily climbing throughout the trading session. It added as much a cent as it reached a session high of $1.39132, before retracing to its current trading level of $1.38918.

The Dow had an uneasy night of trading as the slim possibility of a government shutdown weighed on stocks. The Dow hit session highs of 26,165.90, then gradually declined over the rest of the session. It fell as much as 230 points to 25,934.40. It has come off those lows, where it is now trading at 25,959.90. The Dax put together a commendable performance, rising as much as 106 points, to 13,305.85 before deciding that was enough effort for the session. It then dropped around 20 points to its current trading level of 13,284.60.

The big news event for markets tonight is the government spending bill meeting. This is a meeting of Republicans & Democrats with the sole purpose to lift the US government’s debt ceiling. This is crucial as the debt ceiling is required to be raised in order for the government to pay for services, welfare and other expenses of running government. There is a remote possibility that there will be no agreement reached, meaning there will be a government shutdown. This will unlikely be long-lasting, but it would cause a lot of instability, thus causing volatility on the markets.

Other data set for release today includes:

UK – Retail Sales

Europe – German & Swiss PPI, European Current Account

Canada – Foreign Securities Purchases, Manufacturing Sales

US – Prelim UoM Consumer Sentiment & Inflation Expectations, FOMC Member Randal Quarles speaks