S&P Market News Update

U.S. stock-index futures late Sunday pointed to a lower open for Wall Street, amid further sharp drops for oil and precious metals and a mixed session for Asia shares. Just less than 11 hours ahead of the market open, futures for the S&P 500 SPX, -0.25% implied a 0.4% drop at the start of Monday trading.

SGX Stock Recommendations

MARKET UPDATES :

• SINGAPORE share prices opened higher on Friday with the Straits Times Index up 4.33 points to 3,345.29. Volume was 77.1 million shares worth S$102.9 million. Losers outnumbered gainers 71 to 67.

• SINGAPORE shares ended higher on Friday with the Straits Times Index gaining 9.54 points to 3,350.50. Some 1.20 billion shares, valued at S$1.2 billion were traded. Gainers numbered 183 while losers numbered 220.

• THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Thursday laid out the potential strains on highly indebted corporates and households in Singapore, just a day after developers’ spirited call to lift property market curbs and ahead of US moves towards higher interest rates. But the private debt situation does not pose systemic risks, going by the central bank’s stress tests in its annual financial stability review.

• REAL incomes grew again in 2014, albeit at a far slower pace than last year’s rate, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Friday. According to preliminary figures, Singapore’s real median income grew by 0.4 per cent in 2014, “following exceptionally high increases” of 4 per cent in 2013.

• KPLD announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, DC REIT Holdings Pte Ltd, has entered into a subscription agreement with Keppel DC REIT Management Pte. Ltd., the manager of Keppel DC REIT, to subscribe for ~43.3m units in Keppel DC REIT at a price per unit equal to the issue price in the upcoming offering.

• OPEC meeting concludes, no crude output cut:Without the hope that OPEC would support prices like it did in the past, prices lost all support. Without OPEC intervention, this would leave the global crude market in oversupply and would likely continue to drive prices down. OPEC seems adamant about keeping market share and is likely the main reason why they refrained from output cuts. With the conclusion of one of main events in the oil markets for the year, it seems we will be ending the year in red for oil.

Platinum Market Update

Other metals felt the Monday pressure as well, with January platinum PLF5, -1.45%  down $20.00, or 1.7%, to $1,191.30 an ounce, and December palladium PAZ4, -1.22%  off $16.45, or 2%, to $795.95 an ounce.

High-grade copper for December delivery HGZ4, -1.66%  dropped 4 cents, or 1.4%, to $2.82 a pound.