Opec’s obituary has been written many times, yet it survives
Azam Aris - The obituary of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), born in 1960, has been written many times, notably by Western journalists and analysts. Every time its demise was predicted, Opec not only survived but grew stronger. The West despised Opec. What the five original members ...
Guess as you will about the current investment climate
Andrew Sheng - Finance is a derivative of the real sector. Global bond markets reflect largely the credit-borrowing requirements of governments, whereas stock markets reflect the top companies that generate profits and innovation to support the economy’s competitive standing. While advanced countries (mostly the ...
GIC, Brookfield complete privatisation of ASX-listed National Storage REIT
Jovi Ho - GIC and Brookfield have completed their acquisition of National Storage REIT (NSR), Australia and New Zealand’s largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities. The two global investment firms had announced the deal in December 2025. In a joint announcement on May 8 announcing the financial ...
Nasdaq-SGX tie-up may add sparkle to Singapore tech
Nirgunan Tiruchelvam - It’s been 29 years since my first night out in Singapore. Though my hair has greyed, the memories are fresh. The evening began on Mohammed Sultan Road, where a row of shophouses had been turned into bars. My hosts then took me to the Hard Rock Café. The line to that restaurant off Orchard Road wa ...
A new economics for the 21st century
Mariana Mazzucato and Lara Merling - In the run-up to this year’s International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings, the one story that cut through the noise was that the World Bank had embraced industrial policy after decades of advising against it. But while much of the ensuing debate focused on whether this “U-turn” i ...
Toyota expects $4.3 billion hit from effects of Iran war
TOKYO, May 8 : Japan's Toyota expects the effects of the Iran war to cost it about $4.3 billion this financial year, in one of the most significant warnings yet by a global company on the wider impact of the conflict.The world's largest automaker reported an almost 50 per cent drop in quar ...
Toyota expects $4.3 billion hit from Iran war
TOKYO, May 8 : Toyota expects fallout from the Iran war to cost it around $4.3 billion this financial year, the world's largest automaker said on Friday, in one of the biggest warnings yet on the impact of the crisis on global companies. Toyota reported an almost 50 per cent drop in quarterly e ...
Toyota expects $4.3 billion hit from Iran war fallout
TOKYO, May 8 : Toyota expects the fallout from the Iran war to cost it around $4.3 billion this financial year, the world's largest automaker said on Friday, in one of the biggest warnings yet on the impact of the crisis on global companies. Toyota reported an almost 50 per cent drop in quarter ...
Toyota halves quarterly profit as Iran crisis hits
TOKYO, May 8 : Toyota halved its quarterly profit in an earnings report on Friday and forecast a decline of 20 per cent in the year that just started, as rising costs and supply snarls from the Iran war outweighed surging demand for hybrid vehicles. The results from the world's top-selling auto ...
The real private-credit risk is opacity, not leverage
Amit Seru - Private credit has become a major source of financial anxiety, reflecting growing concerns about rising defaults, tighter liquidity, and the entry of retail investors into a market designed for institutions. But the debate is focusing on the wrong issue. The question is not whether private credit is ...
Why the plumbing should come before AI agents
Nurdianah Md Nur - Only six in 100 companies that have deployed artificial intelligence (AI) have generated economic returns above 10%, says Vinayak HV, senior partner and leader of technology and AI practice for Asia Pacific at McKinsey & Company. “[Success is not based solely on the] models which are learning, ...
OCBC open to returning share buyback portion of $800 mil in special dividends; HSBC acquisition a good fit
Felicia Tan and Kwan Wei Kevin Tan - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) (SGX: O39 ) , which still has some $800 million outstanding for share buybacks as part of its capital return plan, may distribute special dividends. “We will be monitoring the situation to see if conditions are feasible or conducive for further buybacks. ...
Talking in circles in China
Daryl Guppy - Recirculation is an endless cycle (excuse the pun) in China. I promise this will be the last note on this concept, which is so important for working effectively in China. Westerners know they are working in a foreign environment, but so too are Singaporeans. Although there are remnants of Chinese be ...
Freeport Indonesia pushes back Grasberg copper restart by a year
Prices for the metal have surged to a record in January on a wave of speculative buying
Lim and Tan Securities raises Beng Kuang Marine target to 69 cents
Lin Daoyi - Nicholas Yon of Lim and Tan Securities has reinforced his “buy” call on Beng Kuang Marine by raising his valuation of the counter to 69 cents per share in his May 8 report. In his previous initiation report on March 31, Yon valued Beng Kuang at 53.5 cents per share. His confidence comes on the b ...
Why investment resilience now matters more than optimism
Conrad Dequadros - The first quarter of 2026 delivered a pointed reminder that markets rarely move along a single axis. Investors are grappling with multiple shocks: a conflict in the Middle East that is disrupting energy supplies, ongoing uncertainties in global trade and supply chains, concerns about AI investment i ...
Anthropic weighs fundraising for near $1 trillion valuation, FT reports
May 8 : Anthropic is weighing raising tens of billions of dollars this summer to fund a major expansion in computing capacity, a move that could lift its valuation to nearly $1 trillion and put it ahead of rival OpenAI, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
AWS working to restore cooling at North Virginia data centre; Coinbase impacted
May 7 : Amazon's cloud unit said on Thursday it was actively working to restore temperatures to normal levels at a data centre in North Virginia after overheating disrupted some services, though progress has been slower than anticipated.Amazon Web Services said it had made "incremental pro ...
Amazon cloud outage at North Virginia data center largely resolved
May 7 : Amazon's cloud services were largely back online on Friday after overheating at one of its data centers triggered an outage that impacted companies including cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.The cloud giant said it was making progress in resolving the issue after a rapid spike in temper ...
Amazon reports cloud outage at North Virginia data center; CME, Coinbase face trading issues
May 7 : Amazon's cloud unit reported an outage at one of its data center zones in northern Virginia on Thursday, while derivatives marketplace CME Group and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said there were issues with their trading platforms.It was not immediately clear if the issues at AWS and ...
Amazon reports cloud outage at North Virginia data centre; CME, Coinbase face trading issues
May 7 : Amazon's cloud unit reported an outage at one of its data center zones in northern Virginia on Thursday, while derivatives marketplace CME Group and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said there were issues with their trading platforms.It was not immediately clear if the issues at AWS and ...
Asia’s open for business: Hopu Investments
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan - Few figures illustrate the intersection of East and West quite like Hopu Investments’ president, Gunther Hamm. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 2002, he began his career in finance as an investment banking analyst at JPMorgan. In 2007, as signs of the global financial crisis emerged, Ham ...
Private markets accelerate into 2026
Lulu Wang - As 2026 begins, private assets are showing real, steady momentum. Market conditions feel more constructive than they have for some time, underpinned by strengthening structural forces and a gradually stabilising macro backdrop across key regions, including Asia Pacific (Apac). The powerful convergen ...
Valuing non-bank and non-REIT STI constituents
Thiveyen Kathirrasan - Investors can always pick and choose what they invest in. This extends to investing in individual components of a benchmark. For domestic investors, one well-known benchmark is the Straits Times Index (STI), which comprises the 30 largest and most liquid stocks on the Singapore Exchange. The STI is ...
Sony gives upbeat outlook with help from music and games empire
The company will buy back up to 500 billion yen of its shares
Higher target prices for Sheng Siong on earnings growth from new stores
The Edge Singapore - Several analysts have raised their target prices for Sheng Siong Group, citing expectations that demand will remain resilient and new store openings will drive earnings. Along with his “buy” call, Alfie Yeo of RHB Bank Singapore has raised his target price for the supermarket chain to $3.45 from ...
Aztech Global gains favour with wider customer base
The Edge Singapore - Aztech Global reported 1QFY2026 ended March results that came in roughly in line with analysts’ expectations. However, with new orders secured, the manufacturer enjoyed upgrades and higher target prices to reflect the better prospects ahead. In 1QFY2026, Aztech reported earnings of $4 million, a j ...
Middle Eastern banks tap China growth by beefing up presence in Hong Kong
Gulf lenders have been expanding outside of their home turfs in the Middle East and beyond in recent years
Broker's Digest: Elite UK REIT, ISDN Holdings, ESR-REIT, YZJ Maritime, Reclaims Global, CLI, SIA Engineering, Venture
The Edge Singapore - Elite UK REITPrice targets: RHB Bank Singapore ‘buy’ GBP0.41
OCBC’s Indonesian acquisition gets mainly favourable responses
Goola Warden - On May 4, OCBC announced that its Indonesia subsidiary, Bank OCBC NISP (OCBC Indonesia), has entered into an agreement with Bank HSBC Indonesia (HSBC Indonesia) to acquire the assets and liabilities of its retail banking and wealth management operations in Indonesia — International Wealth and Prem ...
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank targeting US$500 million for new aircraft lease fund
The fund, which will purchase Boeing and Airbus aircraft and lease them to airlines globally
How the Hormuz crisis is driving a biofuels boom
Anuradha Raghu and Elizabeth Elkin - Demand for biofuels has been growing in many parts of the world. Governments, particularly those in countries with large farming sectors, have viewed crop-based fuels as a way to support domestic agriculture, cut transport emissions from fossil fuels and help address climate change. The energy crunc ...
DBS, RHB stay cautious on StarHub after weak 1Q earnings as price competition bites
Nurdianah Md Nur - DBS Group Research and RHB Bank are staying cautious on StarHub after the telco’s 1QFY2026 earnings missed expectations, with both research houses warning that price competition in mobile and broadband will continue to weigh on margins. For the three months ended March, StarHub’s net profit afte ...
Sony forecasts higher games profit but lower sales amid memory price surge
TOKYO, May 8 : Sony forecast on Friday a higher annual operating profit but lower sales in its gaming business, with overall profit expected to climb 11 per cent to 1.6 trillion yen ($10.20 billion) for the year ending March 2027. While the PlayStation maker has received plaudits for its transformat ...
