Australia. A lack of influential data released and the US markets closed for Martin Luther King Day meant that the AUD was mainly influenced by Europe during last night's offshore session.

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Continued concerns regarding Europe's economic strength and the outcome of a meeting between the Euro-zone Finance Ministers regarding the recently implemented stability fund saw the AUD/EUR rally and in turn pull the AUD/USD up with it.

The Ministers are meeting on Monday to decide whether to increase the size of its debt rescue fund as concerns regarding Spain and Portugal continue to plague the markets. Another influential factor for the AUD over the coming weeks will be the fall out from the floods, which now spread across 5 states in the nation.

Victoria is now feeling the strain with the Wimmera River in Horsham is expected to peak today. The inflationary impacts of the floods and thus the timing of the next move from the RBA will continue to play with investors minds.

A lack of local data today should see a tight trading range before tonight's offshore session with the outcome of the European meeting due out and the US markets back into play.
Majors: Another sign that the US economy may be on the improve came out last night with the Philadelphia Fed President Plosser indicating to the markets that some thought might need to be put into how to reduce the quantitative easing should data releases out of the region continue to surprise on the up-side.

He said that "if economic growth in the US continues to gain traction...it might be time for us to begin thinking about how we gradually take the foot of the accelerator".

Tonight sees the release of some US manufacturing data and US housing market data for January.

Tonight in the UK there is a raft of top tier economic data out including the CPI for December as well as housing data and some consumer confidence for the same period. The GBP/USD was stronger overnight as investors demand for the GBP increases ahead of the data tonight.