US Stock Futures Down Ahead Of Federal Budget

Pre-open movers

US stock futures dropped in early pre-market trading. The US Treasury monthly budget report for February will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 44 points to 16,292.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 5.80 points to 1,859.40. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 13.50 points to 3,675.00.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index dropping 1.25%, London's FTSE 100 index falling 1.04% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 1.27%. German DAX 30 index tumbled 1.45% and French CAC 40 Index declined 1.54%. Euro-zone industrial output declined 0.2% in January versus December. Asian markets ended mostly lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average declined 2.59%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 1.65%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.17% and India's BSE Index gained 0.14%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded Toll Brothers

TOL

from “outperform” to “neutral.” The target price for Toll Brothers is set to $39. Toll Brothers shares closed at $38.00 yesterday.

Breaking news

Energy XXI EXXI and EPL Oil & Gas EPL today announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Energy XXI will acquire all of EPL's outstanding shares for total consideration of $2.3 billion, including the assumption of debt. To read the full news, click here.
Achaogen AKAO announced today the pricing of its initial public offering of 6,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $12.00 per share. To read the full news, click here.
Geron GERN announced today that the company has received verbal notice from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for imetelstat has been placed on full clinical hold, affecting all ongoing company-sponsored clinical trials. To read the full news, click here.
VeriFone PAY jumped 9.5% in pre-market trading after the company reported its first quarter results. The firm reported a Q1 EPS of $0.31 versus the Street estimate of $0.27. To read the full news, click here.

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