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Iggy's Journal: Banks Dragged the STI Down 0.65 Percent While Wall Street Partied on Nvidia and Salesforce

28 August 2026, AM

Overnight Read:

Wall Street had a genuinely strong session Thursday. Dow up 0.20% to 53,569.44, S&P 500 up 0.72% to 7,730.99, Nasdaq up 1.57% to 26,541.35, the tech-led move driven by Nvidia and Salesforce both blowing past earnings forecasts, Nvidia up 8.74%, Salesforce up 22.58%. VIX eased to 14.51, down from Wednesday's 15.68, so the rally came with falling fear, not despite it. Brent crude edged up to $87.65 a barrel on Gulf Coast refinery demand and lingering Strait of Hormuz risk. USD/SGD sat at 1.2715.

None of that carried over to Singapore. The STI closed Thursday down 0.65% at 5,684, dragged by the banks, DBS off 0.59% to S$75.79, OCBC at S$31.29, UOB at S$40.69. Separately, SingStat's 2Q 2026 print showed services industry business receipts up 25.5% year on year and 6.2% quarter on quarter to S$1.58 trillion, a genuinely strong underlying number that got no credit in the index today.

My Personal Take:

The gap between last night's Wall Street mood and today's STI session is the part I keep coming back to. A 1.6 percent Nasdaq day on the back of AI earnings beats is a US growth story first, and Singapore's banks aren't priced on that story, they're priced on their own yield and capital metrics, which didn't move overnight just because Nvidia had a good quarter. I'd be careful reading today's STI weakness as a signal about local fundamentals when the more boring explanation, a strong global session simply not translating one for one into a bank-heavy index, fits just as well. The SingStat services number deserves more attention than it's getting buried under an index headline.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

Cheers, Iggy 🦖