* Stock index futures fell 0.4 percent to 4,163.0, a 32.9-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index . The benchmark rose 14.9 points on Friday to end the week 2.1 percent higher.

* Miners may be in the frame after a newspaper reported that the Greens, which hold the balance of power in the Australian Senate, want the Labor government to revise the planned profit tax on large iron ore and coal mines.

* New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index slipped 0.2 percent to 3,221.4 in early trade.

* US stocks dropped on Friday, snapping a four-day winning streak, after news reports that Standard & Poor's would downgrade credit ratings on several euro-zone countries.

* Copper capped its strongest weekly performance in six weeks with a whimper on Friday, dropping back after setting a fresh 2-month high as investors dumped risk amid talk of imminent credit downgrades of euro zone countries. Gold fell 1 percent.

* Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro-zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area.

* S&P forecast a 40 percent change of euro zone gross domestic product contracting by up to 1.5 percent in 2012.

* Greece and its creditor banks will continue talks on a voluntary debt exchange deal in the week ahead, a government official said on Friday. Athens needs to secure a deal to avoid bankruptcy when a major bond redemption comes due in March.