The Singapore stock market turned lower again on Thursday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had stumbled almost 50 points or 1.4 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,260-point plateau and it's likely to spin its wheels again on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is volatile, with weakness from oil and technology stocks likely to limit any upside. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to at least open lower.
The STI finished modestly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and industrials.
For the day, the index sank 11.54 points or 0.35 percent to finish at 3,260.03 after trading between 3,240.56 and 3,262.57. Volume was 1.37 billion shares worth 1.64 billion Singapore dollars.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT declined 1.05 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust retreated 1.01 percent, City Developments dropped 0.70 percent, Comfort DelGro sank 0.73 percent, Dairy Farm International plummeted 4.93 percent, DBS Group eased 0.14 percent, Genting Singapore plunged 3.33 percent, Keppel Corp surrendered 1.12 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust added 0.54 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tanked 1.71 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation was up 0.24 percent, SATS lost 0.51 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.35 percent, Singapore Airlines tumbled 1.59 percent, Singapore Exchange and Wilmar International both skidded 0.94 percent, Singapore Press Holdings gained 0.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering shed 0.54 percent, SingTel rose 0.40 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.37 percent and Venture Corporation, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding and Thai Beverage were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but watched those gains evaporate as the markets slid into the red as the day progressed.
The Dow dipped 7.31 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 34,160.78, while the NASDAQ plummeted 189.34 points or 1.40 percent to close at 13,352.78 and the S&P 500 lost 23.42 points or 0.54 percent to end at 4,326.51.
Stocks continued to experience intense volatility as traders weighed upbeat fourth quarter GDP against the prospect of higher interest rates.
The markets initially showed a positive reaction to a Commerce Department report showing stronger than expected GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2021. However, traders have recently shown a reluctance to maintain any meaningful moves, resulting in another rollercoaster ride.
In other economic news, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims pulled back last week, while the Commerce Department and the National Association of Realtors noted steeper than expected drops in durable goods orders and pending home sales in December.
Crude oil prices retreated Thursday as the dollar climbed after the Fed signaled that it would start raising interest rates in March. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $0.74 or 0.9 percent at $86.61 a barrel.
Closer to home, Singapore will provide Q4 unemployment data and December numbers for import, export and producer prices later today. In Q3, the jobless rate was 2.6 percent. In November, export prices rose 22.3 percent on year, import prices climbed 18.3 percent on year and producer prices jumped 26.0 percent on year.
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