It was a very quiet night on Friday night with all of the major global equity markets barely changed. Indices on both sides of the Atlantic closed within 10 points of their opening price, highlighting just how little conviction there was.

Over the weekend President Barack Obama mentioned that 'fiscal cliff' negotiations could take some time whilst House Speaker, John Boehner, stated that at present discussions are going nowhere.

There have been complaints in the US congress that the proposal presented was simply a revised version of old one, giving the impression that the looming cliff is not being taken as seriously as it should be.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE lost three points (-0.1%) to settle at 5867 whilst Germany's DAX added five points (+0.1%) to settle at 7406. France's CAC lost 12 points (-0.3%) to settle at 3557.

In the US, the Dow Jones and the S&P traded flat to settle at 13026 and 1416 respectively whilst the Nasdaq lost two points (-0.1%) to settle at 3010.

In the commodity space, crude oil for January delivery added $0.84 to settle at $88.91 a barrel due to signs of an expansion in the US. Gold fell 1% to settle at $1712.70 an ounce due to worries that US officials might not be able to come to an agreement by the end of the year.

In the currency space, the Japanese yen fell against most of its counterparts after statistics showed that consumer prices in Japan did not change last month, adding to concerns of more aggressive monetary policies. The euro traded higher than the US dollar after it was reported that German officials approved Greece's financial aid.

Today will see the release of a raft of economic data; AIG manufacturing index (9:30am, AEDT), MI inflation gauge (10:30am, AEDT), retail sales data (11:30am, AEDT), ANZ job advertisements (11:30am, AEDT), company operating profits (11:30am, AEDT), and commodity prices (4:30pm, AEDT).

Morning Market Update: Quiet Session Ahead is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog