Singapore Stock Market May Be Stuck In Neutral On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market has moved higher in four straight sessions, collecting more than 35 points or 1 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index now sits just shy of the 34,000-point plateau and it's looking at a flat lead on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of key corporate and inflation data. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to also hug the unchanged line.

The STI finished slightly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financials, weakness from the properties and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index added 2.44 points or 0.07 percent to finish at 3,398.47 after trading between 3,383.32 and 3,401.22.

Among the actives, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust dropped 0.47 percent, while CapitaLand Investment shed 0.38 percent, City Developments skidded 0.75 percent, Comfort DelGro and Yangzijiang Financial both rallied 1.45 percent, DBS Group rose 0.25 percent, Hongkong Land retreated 1.08 percent, Keppel DC REIT advanced 0.47 percent, Keppel Ltd lost 0.32 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and Mapletree Logistics Trust both slumped 0.74 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust added 0.41 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.28 percent, SATS tumbled 1.09 percent, Seatrium Limited climbed 1.37 percent, SembCorp Industries and Frasers Centrepoint both sank 0.42 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering fell 0.22 percent, SingTel gained 0.35 percent, Thai Beverage surged 2.97 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding soared 1,63 percent and Emperador, Genting Singapore, Wilmar International and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is flat to positive as the major averages straddled the unchanged line throughout Tuesday's trade before finally finishing barely higher.

The Dow rose 10.00 points or 0.02 percent to finish at a record 41,250.50, while the NASDAQ added 29.05 points or 0.16 percent to close at 17,754.82 and the S&P 500 perked 8.96 points or 0.16 percent to end at 5,625.80.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of earnings news from Nvidia (NVDA), with the AI darling due to release its fiscal second quarter results later today.

Traders were also looking ahead to the release of Commerce Department's report on personal income and spending in the month of July, which includes readings on inflation said to be preferred by the Federal Reserve, on Friday.

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.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday after three successive days of strong gains, consolidating ahead of supply data due out later today. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for October slumped $1.89 or 2.5 percent at $75.53 a barrel.