The Market Is Going To Open In Less Than 2 Hours - Here's What's Happening In Washington

Futures markets will open in less than two hours.

Here's what's going on in Washington right now.

All eyes are on the Senate, where negotiations (of some sort) are taking place between Democratic and Republican leadership.

At issue seems to be the level of spending that the government will run at next year. Republicans want to lock in Sequestration-level spending for as long as possible. Democrats would like to revisit spending levels as soon as possible to undo the spending caps that were put in place as part of the 2011 deal.

The two sides aren't that far apart, as the GOP realizes that it has a weak hand and can't ask for much. But Democrats aren't inclined to give much, given their strong polling and desire to not give into GOP "hostage-taking."

At the moment, it doesn't look like a positive deal will be struck today, and given the politics it's unclear what can get through both Houses. Remember, even if a deal is agreed to by the Senate, the GOP-controlled House could kill anything.

The mood is more grim than it was on Friday, when it looked like a bipartisan deal hatched by Maine Senator Susan Collins could make it out of the Senate. That optimism led to huge market rallies on Thursday and Friday of last week, and now it looks likely that equity markets will give some of that back, as negotiations have gone in reverse over the weekend.

Follow here for the latest.