Singapore Bourse May Hand Back Wednesday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last five trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had fallen more than 15 points or 0.5 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just beneath the 3,220-point plateau although it may spin its wheels again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat following the release of U.S. inflation data that offered little clarity for interest rates. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished slightly higher on Wednesday as gains from the financials were capped by weakness from the properties and industrials.

For the day, the index added 4.47 points or 0.14 percent to finish at 3,218.93 after trading between 3,204.84 and 3,223.60.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT shed 0.71 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust stumbled 1.05 percent, CapitaLand Investment lost 0.64 percent, City Developments eased 0.30 percent, Comfort DelGro dropped 0.79 percent, DBS Group collected 0.84 percent, Emperador slumped 0.97 percent, Genting Singapore declined 1.15 percent, Hongkong Land retreated 1.13 percent, Keppel Corp slid 0.58 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust tumbled 1.34 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust tanked 1.73 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust fell 0.60 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation gained 0.48 percent, SATS rose 0.39 percent, SembCorp Industries dipped 0.39 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering and DFI Retail both sank 0.78 percent, Thai Beverage skidded 0.83 percent, Wilmar International added 0.54 percent, Yangzijiang Financial plummeted 2.74 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged1.74 percent and Seatrium Limited and SingTel were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday, quickly plummeted and then recovered to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow sank 70.46 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 34,575.53, while the NASDAQ added 39.97 points or 0.29 percent to close at 13,813.58 and the S&P 500 rose 5.54 points or 0.12 percent to end at 4,467.44.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of the Labor Department's report on consumer price inflation in August. The report said the consumer price index climbed by 0.6 percent in August after inching up by 0.2 percent in July.

While the data reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged next week, many economists feel the bigger than expected monthly increase in core prices leaves the door open for another rate hike before the end of the year.

Following the report, CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates a 97.0 percent chance the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates unchanged next week. The outlook for November remains more mixed, however, with the FedWatch Tool indicating a 58.0 percent chance rates will remain unchanged and a 40.8 percent chance of another quarter-point rate hike.

Crude oil futures settled lower on Wednesday on worries about demand after data showed an unexpected jump in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October fell $0.32 or 0.4 percent at $88.52 a barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see unemployment data for the second quarter of 2023 later today, with forecasts expecting the jobless rate to hold steady at 1.9 percent.