US Stock Futures Down As Investors Await Release Of President Obama's Budget

US stock futures are slightly lower this morning, after previous week's gains. Investors are awaiting the release of President Obama's budget. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2 points to 12,239.00 and S&P 500 futures dropped 2.20 points to 1,325.80. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.25 points to 2,377.00. The blue-chip Dow index gained 0.36% to close at 12,273 on Friday. The Dow index gained 1.5% last week. No major US economic data are due for release today. The White House is due to release its budget proposal for FY12. MGM Resorts International MGM and Marriott International Inc MAR are scheduled to report quarterly results today. Shares of Nokia Corp NOK dropped about 4% in pre-market trading as the company announced a partnership with Microsoft Corp MSFT last week. Analysts at JP Morgan downgraded Nokia from “overweight” to “underweight.” Analysts at HSBC downgraded Nokia from “neutral” to “underweight.” General Electric Co GE announced its plans to purchase the well support division of UK firm John Wood Group PLC for about $2.8 billion. European markets were mixed today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.32%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.15%. Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gaining 1.13%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 1.06% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 2.55%. Oil futures fell $0.32 to $85.26 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. The euro dropped about 0.6% against the US dollar. The dollar index (DXY) gained 0.30% to 78.69. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.