Key Points

STI closed Monday at 5,729.02, up 0.3% (+17.90 points), with UOB leading a bank-driven advance as breadth skewed negative.

City Developments slid 8.1% to S$7.59 after its strategic review detailed S$6 billion in divestments plus S$5 billion of growth capital deployment.

Overnight, US falls: the S&P 500 lost 0.8% to 7,683.69 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.9% as the 10-year Treasury yielded 5.241%, its highest 3pm close since 2007.

Tuesday SGT: Consumer Confidence and JOLTS both drop at 10pm SGT, ahead of Micron earnings Wednesday after the US close.

Singapore Open

The Straits Times Index (STI) ended Monday at 5,729.02, up 17.90 points or 0.3%, building on last week's climb back above 5,700 even as Wall Street wobbled overnight. There were more losers than gainers across the board, but the local banks carried the benchmark.

$UOB (U11.SG)$ led the pack, up 1.7% (+S$0.72) to S$43.29, while $OCBC (O39.SG)$ added 0.7% (+S$0.21) to S$32.22 and $DBS (D05.SG)$ inched up 0.1% (+S$0.11) to S$78.11. The trio remains the STI's engine room, supported by a robust growth outlook and a firmer Singapore dollar against the backdrop of a cautious MAS stance.

The session's standout loser was $City Developments (C09.SG)$, down 8.1% to S$7.59 after its long-awaited strategic review. The plan flags S$6 billion of divestments, securitisation and optimisation over three years, plus S$5 billion in growth capital and a targeted dividend payout of more than 35% of reported profit. The market read the blueprint as ambiguous on near-term value, given elevated leverage persists despite the asset-disposal ambitions.

Singapore Macro

Singapore's core inflation rose to 2.2% in August, a third straight monthly acceleration and the highest since 2024, on firmer services, food and retail prices. Headline CPI rose 2.3% year-on-year, with both measures sitting in the upper half of the MAS's 1.5-2.5% full-year range. The September MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters lifted 2026 GDP growth to 5.0% from 3.5%, giving the central bank room to stay firm.

The transmission to SGX names is nuanced. A hawkish-leaning MAS underpins the SGD, supporting banks' net interest margins and keeping imported inflation in check — but it also raises funding costs for rate-sensitive S-REITs and developers, which is precisely why CDL's deleveraging story matters. Watch the MAS's October policy statement, typically released around late October, for any shift in the SGD NEER slope.

US Overnight

Monday's US session closed lower as the AI-led rally stalled. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% to 7,683.69, the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9% to 26,820.38, and the Dow dropped 0.7% to 51,481.51. The 10-year Treasury yield advanced to 5.241%, up from 5.18% on Friday, a fresh 19-year high that keeps pressure on high-multiple growth names.

Key Movers

$Nvidia (NVDA.US)$ +1.68% — the chipmaker bucked the tape after announcing a US$150 billion expansion of its buyback programme, taking the total authorisation to US$235 billion, the largest in US corporate history. The move highlights Nvidia's free-cash-flow firepower — projected to reach roughly US$317 billion in fiscal 2027 — but it did little to lift the broader AI complex, which was among Monday's laggards.

$Boeing (BA.US)$ -6.9% — the Federal Aviation Administration said it would delay certification of the 737 MAX 10 until a newly disclosed software issue is resolved. The glitch, tied to flight-management software versions 14 and 14.1, can disable automated flight guidance in a specific landing scenario. Several US airlines said they would rather take earlier software builds, clouding Boeing's near-term delivery and cash-flow outlook.

Asia Pre-Market

US index futures were little changed early Tuesday, offering a muted signal after Monday's pullback. WTI crude settled slightly higher at just below US$93 a barrel, after spiking as much as 4.5% intraday on the back-and-forth over the Strait of Hormuz; Qatari mediators' pledge to bring Washington and Tehran back to the table took the edge off. Gold tumbled about 3.5%, with NY futures settling near US$4,168 an ounce, as the surging dollar and a 19-year-high Treasury yield crushed the non-yielding metal. Bitcoin slipped roughly 1.4%. For SGX, the key read is oil: sustained pressure near US$93 keeps the imported-inflation impulse alive, reinforcing the cautious MAS backdrop for banks while squeezing fuel-sensitive transport names.

This Week's US Earnings and Economic Calendar

Earnings Spotlight

$Micron (MU.US)$ reports fiscal Q4 2026 after Wednesday's US close (early Thursday morning SGT). Consensus is around US$31.45 EPS on roughly US$50.9 billion of revenue, with management having guided revenue to US$49-51 billion and adjusted EPS to US$30-32. The AI memory cycle is the core story: DRAM revenue is estimated near US$38.3 billion (+326% y/y) and NAND near US$12.3 billion (+447%), buoyed by surging HBM demand and record pricing. The print lands the same day as the August PCE release, so the market will be weighing memory pricing power against sticky inflation simultaneously — a crucial read for the global chip chain.

One More Thing

The useful lens this week is to distinguish rotation from outright de-risking. Monday's US weakness came with oil and financials holding up relatively well — the STI's own bank-led advance is a reminder that higher-for-longer rates reward lenders while they punish high-multiple AI. If crude stays bid near US$93 and financials keep outperforming as tech bleeds, that's rotation, and the bank-heavy STI tends to stay insulated. But if rising yields and the strong dollar start pulling everything lower together — tech, banks and commodities alike — it's deleveraging, and even the banks' relative advantage gets tested. Wednesday's combination of PCE inflation and Micron guidance gives a clean signal: re-accelerating inflation hurts the AI-multiple story, while Micron's outlook tells you whether the earnings power is still there to defend it.

Sources: CNBC, The Business Times, Reuters.

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

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