Washington approved the US$3.3 billion sale of anti-ballistic missiles to Japan on Tuesday, following close behind a series of new ballistic missile tests by North Korea that could threaten the US ally. Japan will buy up to 73 of the Raytheon-made SM-3 Block IIA missiles, which are designed to be fired by the ship-board Aegis system to intercept incoming ballistic missiles, the Pentagon said.

New British finance minister Sajid Javid said on Tuesday he will announce an increase in public spending on health, education and the police next week, but he will stick with the budget rules drawn up by his predecessor.

The Brazilian central bank waded into the foreign exchange market on Tuesday in a rare sale of dollars on the spot market after the real slumped to its weakest level against the greenback in almost a year and within sight of its all-time low. The intervention marked the first time in 10 years that the bank had sold dollars on the spot market without using additional instruments or a commitment to repurchase.

British oil giant BP said Tuesday it will sell all of its Alaska operations for US$5.6 billion, exiting the state after 60 years to help meet divestment goals.

Global industrial gases and engineering group Linde broke ground on Tuesday for its upcoming US$1.4 billion integrated manufacturing complex in Singapore - the single largest investment in the company's history. Slated for completion in early 2023, the complex will be located and integrated with Linde's existing gasification facility on Jurong Island, and will quadruple Linde's production capacity of hydrogen and synthetic gas in Singapore.

Source: SGX Masnet, The Business Times, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, Reuters, PSR