Key Points

• STI snapshot: The Straits Times Index closed at 5,437.99 on Wednesday, up 0.63% (33.97 points), with DBS, OCBC and UOB all firmer.
• Local catalyst: Singtel slipped after IMDA imposed a S$1 million penalty over March outages affecting 720,000 subscribers.
• US overnight: The S&P 500 rose 0.53% and the Nasdaq gained about 1.05% as SpaceX and Meta rallied; Tesla fell after hours on softer capex.
• Today: US jobless claims land at 8.30pm SGT; Procter & Gamble reports before the US open.

Singapore Open

The STI rebounded 33.97 points to close at 5,437.99 (+0.63%), led by the local banks, with gainers beating losers 334 to 214 on S$1.8 billion turnover. $DBS (D05.SG)$ closed at S$74.65 (+0.30%), $OCBC (O39.SG)$ at S$29.14 (+1.18%) and $UOB (U11.SG)$ at S$42.00 (+1.40%). $Venture (V03.SG)$ was the top blue-chip gainer, up 2.21% to S$15.75.

$Singtel (Z74.SG)$ fell 0.9% to S$4.19 after Singapore's telecom regulator, IMDA, fined the group S$1 million over March service disruptions affecting 720,000 subscribers. $Singapore Airlines (C6L.SG)$ added 0.9% to S$6.57, with elevated oil prices partly absorbed by resilient passenger demand.

Singapore Macro

MAS kept its S$NEER policy settings unchanged on Oct 14, a surprise hold against expectations for tightening, as Q3 GDP grew 5.4% year-on-year, moderating from 6.2% in Q2. Core inflation remains elevated and MAS expects it to stay so into 2027; the central bank's chief economist has said AI-driven productivity gains could eventually justify policy easing. September non-oil domestic exports jumped 68.4%.

Path for SGX: a stable S$NEER path keeps the local rate backdrop intact for bank net-interest margins, while sticky energy-led inflation keeps SIBOR and REIT financing costs higher for longer. Separately, the banks may curb financing for firms linked to Indonesian open burning amid the haze crisis, a watch item for ESG-sensitive sectors.

US Overnight

Wall Street closed higher on Wednesday as SpaceX's blowout results revived risk appetite. The S&P 500 rose 0.53%, the Nasdaq gained about 1.05% and the Dow added 0.64% (based on SPY/QQQ/DIA approximations). The 10-year Treasury yield held near 5.13%.

Key Movers

$SpaceX (SPCX.US)$ +7.7% — Q3 revenue surged 161% to US$14.6 billion, with AI-related work now generating nearly half of sales; Citi lifted its target to US$240. Elon Musk also floated studying a potential SpaceX-Tesla merger.

$Super Micro (SMCI.US)$ — shares jumped after the server maker raised preliminary Q1 2027 revenue guidance to US$18.5-19.5 billion, reinforcing AI-infrastructure demand.

$Netflix (NFLX.US)$ — slipped after weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue guidance, even as Q3 subscriber growth held up.

After hours, $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ fell about 2.5% — Q3 revenue came in at US$28.05 billion, roughly in line, but GAAP EPS of US$0.22 missed the US$0.26 consensus and net income dropped 43%. Capital spending of US$4.73 billion was far below the US$7.95 billion expected, and full-year capex was cut to US$20 billion; Robotaxi revenue is not seen until Q2 2027. $Meta (META.US)$ rose about 2% after Q3 revenue grew 26% to US$64.6 billion and it guided Q4 to US$73-76 billion, though free cash flow turned negative on AI spending.

Asia Pre-Market

US futures pointed lower on Thursday, with S&P 500 futures down about 0.4% and Nasdaq futures down about 0.6%, as mixed tech results and a Middle East-driven oil bounce dampened sentiment. WTI crude traded near US$99-100, up about 2%, with Brent around US$110; gold sat near US$4,145 an ounce and Bitcoin rebounded to around US$84,000-85,000. Firmer oil and sticky yields near 5.1% keep near-term attention on rate-sensitive financials and SIA's fuel costs at the open.

Today's US Earnings and Economic Calendar

Earnings Spotlight

$Procter & Gamble (PG.US)$ reports fiscal Q1 2027 before the US open, with consensus around US$1.88 EPS on US$22.8 billion revenue. The stock has rallied sharply into results, but analysts expect core EPS to fall about 6% year-on-year amid input-cost and tariff pressure. The same-day US jobless claims release at 8.30pm SGT could shape expectations into Friday's flash manufacturing and services PMIs plus the final University of Michigan sentiment reading.

One More Thing

Do not confuse a Tesla capex reset with an AI-spending unwind. Tesla's cut reflects company-specific transformation timing, with Robotaxi and Optimus not contributing until late 2027, while SMCI's guidance raise, Meta's expansion plans and reports of ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent placing over US$35 billion in $Nvidia (NVDA.US)$ chip orders point the other way. For SGX investors, the cleaner test is the banks' Q3 results next month — UOB on Nov 4, DBS on Nov 5 and OCBC on Nov 6 — where NIM strength will show whether the local rate story can absorb any AI spending wobble.

Sources: The Business Times, Yahoo Finance, StockTitan.

This briefing is compiled with AI assistance from market data and wire reports, and reviewed by the Longbridge editorial team before publication.

This briefing is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.