Singapore Shares May Take Further Damage On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Wednesday ended the four-day winning streak in which it had gained more than 35 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,390-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed and flat ahead of key inflation data. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The STI finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index fell 7.44 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 3,391.03 after trading between 3,373.19 and 3,400.45.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Investment advanced 1.15 percent, while City Developments was down 0.38 percent, DBS Group dropped 0.61 percent, Emperador climbed 1.16 percent, Genting Singapore and Wilmar International both skidded 0.63 percent, Keppel Ltd stumbled 0.65 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust added 0.74 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust slid 0.41 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation sank 0.48 percent, SATS gained 0.55 percent, Seatrium Limited declined 0.68 percent, SembCorp Industries lost 0.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering shed 0.45 percent, SingTel rallied 1.38 percent, Thai Beverage jumped 1.92 percent, Yangzijiang Financial tumbled 1.43 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding retreated 0.80 percent and Hongkong Land, Keppel DC REIT, Comfort DelGro, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Mapletree Logistics Trust and DFI Retail Group were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower and mostly remained under water throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 159.08 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 41,091.42, while the NASDAQ sank 198.79 points or 1.12 percent to end at 17,556.03 and the S&P 500 lost 33.62 points or 0.60 percent to close at 5,592.18.

The weakness on Wall Street partly reflected anxiety ahead of the release of market leader Nvidia's (NVDA) fiscal second quarter results after the close of trading.

After the markets closed, Nvidia showed a profit for its second quarter that increased from last year and beat estimates.

Stocks were also under pressure as traders looked ahead to Friday's Commerce Department report on personal income and spending in July, which includes readings on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve. While the data is not likely to affect optimism the Fed will lower rates next month, it could impact expectations for how quickly the central bank cuts rates.

Crude oil futures dropped Wednesday on concerns about the outlook for global oil demand, and on data showing a much smaller than expected drop in U.S. crude oil inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October sank $1.01 or 1.34 percent at $74.52 a barrel.