Key Points

• The Straits Times Index closed Monday at 5,664.33, up 29.51 points or 0.52%.
• SGX's smaller board lots took effect Oct 5 for 11 stocks, cutting the minimum lot from 100 to 10 units for DBS, OCBC and UOB.
• US overnight, the Nasdaq Composite closed at a record 27,477.31 (+1.05%) while the 10-year yield topped 5.3%, a two-decade high.
• Today: US August trade data at 8.30pm SGT; FOMC minutes Thursday 2.00am SGT; PepsiCo reports pre-market Thursday.

Singapore Open

The STI's last close, from Monday, was 5,664.33 (+0.52%). The banks led again, helped by retail-friendly microstructure: SGX's reduced board lot sizes for 11 counters kicked in on Oct 5, cutting the minimum trade for stocks priced S$10–S$100 from 100 units to 10. $DBS (D05.SG)$ closed at S$77.83 (+0.80%), $OCBC (O39.SG)$ at S$31.88 (+0.69%), while $UOB (U11.SG)$ slipped 0.12% to S$43.06. $Singapore Airlines (C6L.SG)$ was flat at S$6.66 and $Singtel (Z74.SG)$ added 0.47% to S$4.27.

The point to watch this week is whether the lower board lots translate into broader participation. The 11 affected names, which include DBS, Great Eastern, Keppel, OCBC and UOB, accounted for 35% of SGX trading in the first half of 2026 — so a genuine lift in smaller-ticket turnover could support activity even if the index tape stays muted.

Singapore Macro

Local macro is set by the approaching MAS October policy decision. In its July statement, MAS kept the S$NEER slope after an April tightening and projected core inflation to rise in Q3 before easing through H2 2027. Q2 headline inflation was 1.8% and core 1.5%, while GDP grew 5.9% y/y, prompting MTI to upgrade the 2026 full-year forecast to 4.5%–5.5%.

The transmission for SGX investors: roughly 45% of economists surveyed by MAS expect a further slope increase in October. If energy-driven price pressures keep pushing the inflation prints hot, any S$NEER steepening argues for a firmer Singapore dollar and firmer short-end SGD rates — a mixed bag for banks' net-interest margins and a mild headwind to REIT financing costs, even as it reinforces the local flight-to-quality trade that has carried $DBS (D05.SG)$ and $OCBC (O39.SG)$ to record highs.

US Overnight

US stocks rose Monday as heavyweight tech overwhelmed still-elevated oil prices and bond yields. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.05% to 27,477.31, a record, the S&P 500 added 0.66% to 7,773.95, and the Dow rose 90.94 points (0.18%) to 51,267.90. The 10-year Treasury yield traded as high as 5.349%, its highest since 2002, as the market moved to price out an October Fed hike after September payrolls rose just 29,000.

Key Movers

$PTC (PTC.US) +33.3% — The S&P 500's best performer after French engineering group Schneider Electric agreed to buy the industrial-software maker in a deal valued around $23 billion, aimed at repositioning Schneider around industrial AI. PTC closed at $192.26, though Schneider's own shares dropped nearly 10% in Paris as investors weighed the premium and software valuations.

$Nvidia (NVDA.US) +2.12% — The chip leader hit a fresh record, closing at $238.90 and extending its run as the world's largest company by market value. AI infrastructure demand stayed the story, with Morgan Stanley separately arguing that Nvidia and Broadcom are well shielded from a projected 32-gigawatt US data-centre power shortfall by 2028.

$SpaceX (SPCX.US) +7.63% — Shares closed at $171.09 after a major bank called the stock cheap with a $300 price target and on reports of possible TSMC cooperation on Musk's Texas Terafab chips project. The read-through lifted $Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM.US) +2.75% to a record $485.80, while $Intel (INTC.US) fell 2.63% to $116.19 on the competitive threat.$Alibaba (BABA.US) also rallied 4.68% to $110.80 as Chinese ADRs outpaced their Hong Kong closes.

Asia Pre-Market

US index futures were little changed into Tuesday trade, with S&P 500 futures hovering around flat and Nasdaq-100 futures slightly lower. WTI crude eased below $91/bbl after G-7 nations agreed to release crude and diesel reserves, while Brent held near $102. Gold firmed above $4,156/oz, and Bitcoin traded near $86,100, stuck below $87,000 as weak US payrolls took an October Fed hike off the table. For the SGX open, the softer oil tone is mildly constructive — it eases the energy-price inflation channel MAS has flagged — while a record-heavy Nasdaq keeps the AI suppliers that dominate Singapore's tech-linked trade in focus.

Today's US Earnings and Economic Calendar

Earnings are light this week ahead of the Oct 12 bank-led start of Q3 earnings season. The big SG-relevant names:

Earnings Spotlight: $PepsiCo (PEP.US) — The snacks-and-beverages giant reports Thursday pre-market, with consensus at $2.30 EPS on about $25 billion revenue. The watch item is North America: last quarter core EPS of $2.20 narrowly missed forecasts as beverage volume fell 4% and food volume stayed flat, even as international operations firmed. PepsiCo's print lands the same morning as the FOMC minutes (2.00am SGT Thursday), so a hawkish set of minutes could spill into how consumer-staples multiples are paid this week.

One More Thing

Monday's tape neatly separated two trades: the index printed a record while the 10-year yield printed a two-decade high. That divergence is a useful filter for the rest of the week — if FOMC minutes hint the Fed is still leaning hawkish, expect a rotation out of rate-sensitive names and into the AI-capex complex that dominates both the Nasdaq and Singapore's tech-linked supply chain. If the minutes lean dovish, the recent strength in $DBS (D05.SG)$ and $OCBC (O39.SG)$ becomes more durable. Watch the yield, not just the index, when the minutes drop on Thursday.

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