Central banks face painful test as stresses multiply
Andrew Sheng - Central banks were created to deal with crises. The first, Sveriges Riksbank, was founded in 1668 to deal with a Swedish banking collapse. The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to finance Britain’s war against France. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) banking system was created in 1913 to manage a vo ...
Switch in talks to raise funds at $50 billion-plus valuation, The Information reports
June 4 : Data center developer Switch is in talks to raise billions of dollars at a valuation of at least $50 billion, The Information reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the deal. Here are some details: • Brookfield Asset Management, KKR and other private equity and institution
The trade war is returning with a vengeance
Manu Bhaskaran - Just as hopes for an end to the Middle East war are rising, the drums of another war are beating. The world is edging closer to a new trade war as the US and Europe search for ways to cope with China’s surging export competitiveness, and as China threatens to retaliate. These disagreements will be ...
From CTO to CEO: Anext Bank taps financing AI hardware to grow SME lending
Benjamin Cher - The Ant International unit is using AI financing and alternative data to expand credit access for MSMEs
Anext Bank’s new CEO leverages CTO stint to grow SME lending by financing AI hardware
Benjamin Cher - Qiu Kai takes unusual route to corner office at Ant International unit
Grandfathers and the inheritance that outlasts wealth
Jeffery Tan - Asia is on the cusp of one of the largest intergenerational wealth transfers in history. By some estimates, trillions of dollars will pass from one generation to the next in the coming decades. But amid the fixation on assets, portfolios and inheritance planning, a more enduring question risks being ...
Reading between China’s red lines
Stephen S Roach - Chinese President Xi Jinping sent an unmistakably tough message on Taiwan to US President Donald Trump during their recent summit in Beijing. Xi warned that if the issue was handled poorly, China and the US would “collide or even clash”, creating an “extremely dangerous situation”. He stress ...
It is time to snap up silver
Nirgunan Tiruchelvam - In the summer of 1980, a modern marvel arrived in my family home in Colombo. Uncle Clarence brought it from New York. It was a Polaroid camera. The gadget looked like a sleek, flat book when closed and unfolded into a triangular camera. It could take a photo and develop it in a few minutes. The prin ...
Nvidia’s big laptop bet hinges on frugal chips
Parmy Olson - Gamers who long ago coveted Nvidia Corp’s graphics cards because they rendered computer games so beautifully will soon be eyeing new Windows computers that plug that technology right into a laptop’s brain. Nvidia’s latest effort to diversify itself from the monumentally successful business of ...
WeChat at the centre of China’s business universe
Daryl Guppy - In recent weeks, I have been working with some South African clients who are interested in the Chinese market, either as exporters or as domestic business partners. It has been a useful reminder of how China is mythologised: “It is a vast single market”; misunderstood: “Everything is state-con ...
Valuing companies using discounted assets
Thiveyen Kathirrasan - The three main financial statements investors should use for analysis and valuation of a company are the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. The goal of analysing and valuing a company should be to estimate the price at which the investor thinks the company should be trading. Th ...
Cash is king, until it is not: Lombard Odier
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan - Cash. The one asset class that nearly every investor, rich or poor, has exposure to. Whether you are a billionaire paying top dollar to your fund managers or private bankers to grow your wealth, or a retail investor hoping to get rich buying the dip, you probably have some cash or cash equivalents l ...
China market headed for another upcycle, says T Rowe Price’s Zheng
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan - It’s really hard to make sense of China’s economy at times. On the one hand, Asia’s largest economy has been grappling with an economic slowdown for the past few years after its property sector suffered a historic bust in 2020. China has lowered its GDP growth target to 4.5% to 5% for 2026, do ...
BlackRock EQDP fund makes ‘systematic’ bet on Singapore equities
Kwan Wei Kevin Tan - Investors now have a wide range of options when choosing which Equities Market Development Programme (EQDP) fund manager to entrust with their capital. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has so far allocated $3.95 billion of the $6.5 billion fund to nine fund managers. The MAS-appointed asset ...
Uneventful 1Q anchors analysts’ views on Seatrium
Lin Daoyi - Multiple analysts have mostly maintained their confident outlook on offshore and marine giant Seatrium after an uneventful first quarter in which the company did not secure any significant new contract wins, but continued its steady execution of projects and balance sheet strengthening while hunting ...
Resilient platform at Sats inspires higher target price; elevated input costs could cause margin compression
Teo Zheng Long - The global aviation industry is bracing for some turbulence with fuel costs testing the hedging skills of airline executives. However, for ground handler Sats (SGX: S58 ) , having integrated the acquisition of WFS, is revving its growth engine just fine, even if not firing on all cylinders. “The c ...
Broker's Digest: Mapletree Industrial Trust, IHH, Elite UK REIT, Addvalue, Nordic, Valuetronics, UI Boustead REIT
The Edge Singapore - Mapletree Industrial TrustPrice target: DBS Group Research ‘hold’ $2.05 Pending further positive developments
Asian stocks take another hit from AI, Middle East worries
HONG KONG: Asian equities went into reverse on Friday (Jun 5) on continued worries about the artificial intelligence trade after disappointing forecasts from chip titan Broadcom, while investors were also keeping a wary eye on
Tumbling stocks, sinking rupiah: ‘Sell Indonesia’ sweeps trading desks as Prabowo tightens grip
His move to take direct control of key commodity exports to curb tax evasion triggered a sell-off in exporter stocks
China speeds past Japan in Australian car imports on EV bonanza
Electric vehicles and hybrids account for almost half of the cars sold in Australia in May
Does NTA mean anything?
Goola Warden - Going by the valuation accorded to Sats and its price performance, net tangible asset (NTA) doesn’t matter since Sats’ share price has risen by about 20% (as at June 3) following the announcement of its FY2026 results on May 25. This is despite Sats’ historic NTA fluctuating around plus or min ...
New US tariff, exemptions will provide growth stimulus for Indonesia, minister says
JAKARTA, June 5 : Indonesia's chief economic minister said on Friday that an additional 10 per cent duty imposed by the United States on the country's exports, along with the exemptions expected for some of its key products, could help to stimulate economic growth.The U.S. Trade Representa ...
Vingroup’s shares surge 1,000% to overtake regional heavyweights including Singtel and JD.com
Vingroup’s blistering rally has made it the biggest company within frontier markets, and one of the most expensive across Asia
Vingroup’s 1,000% surge tests limits of Vietnam’s market boom
The conglomerate is now worth more than any Indonesian company and even surpasses regional heavyweights Singtel and JD.com
Qantas weighs order for 20 Boeing or Airbus wide-body jets, sources say
Singapore Airlines has opened discussions to buy at least 50 of the industry’s biggest jets, Reuters reported earlier
KGI's Chen initiates coverage on OKP with 'outperform' call and $1.31 target price
The Edge Singapore - Chen Guangzhi of KGI Securities has initiated coverage on construction firm OKP Holdings with a bullish "outperform" call and $1.31 price target, citing the ongoing multi-year infrastructure upcycle that supports the company's orderbook replenishment. "OKP is well positioned to b ...
South Korean stocks slide as cracks emerge in world-beating rally
Retail investors, once key drivers, are showing less willingness to commit fresh cash
Philippine annual inflation slows to 6.8% in May
MANILA, June 5 : Philippine annual inflation stood at 6.8 per cent in May, below the previous month's 7.2 per cent rate, driven mainly by slower increases in food and transport costs, the statistics agency said on Friday. • The consumer price index was below the 7.5 per cent median forecast i ...
Philippine central bank to act as May inflation stays above target
MANILA, June 5 : The Philippine central bank said on Friday it will "take necessary actions" to bring inflation back to its target, after the annual pace of consumer price growth remained above its 3 per cent goal for a third straight month in May.Annual inflation unexpectedly slowed to 6. ...
Yen hits key 160 level for third session, dollar buoyed by Gulf woes
HONG KONG, June 5 : The Japanese yen is testing the 160 barrier on Friday, prompting pushback from Japanese officials, while the U.S. dollar is on track for a weekly gain as Gulf tensions fuel safe-haven flows.The yen weakened to the critical 160-per-dollar mark briefly in early trades, hitting the ...
Gold steadies as uncertainty surrounds progress in US-Iran talks
The war’s protracted disruption to energy flows via the Strait of Hormuz has driven oil prices higher
Civmec order book hits record S$1.5 billion on new resources, infrastructure projects
Therese Soh - The new awards are set to be delivered across FY2027 and FY2028
Stocks to watch: CDL, IReit, Civmec
Deon Loke - [SINGAPORE] The following companies saw new developments that may affect trading of their securities on Friday (Jun 5):
US-Iran ceasefire talks stall after Hizbollah rejects Lebanon-Israel truce
Among the conditions Iran has set was an end to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon
