Asian stocks looked set for a muted start to Friday trading after a dip in U.S. shares amid concern the recent rally had gone too far. The dollar fell with Treasuries, while futures were flat in Japan, and slipped in Hong Kong and Australia. The S&P 500 Index fell less than half a percentage point, still its biggest drop in two weeks, snapping a four-day winning streak. Treasury yields rose as weekly American jobless claims fell. The euro earlier surged after the European Central Bank announced a bigger than expected boost to its emergency bond-buying program. Elsewhere, West Texas oil was steady amid the long-running feud over compliance with production cutbacks. Gold climbed.

Mapletree Industrial Trust will join the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) from June 22, replacing Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), following the latest quarterly review of the STI by FTSE Russell.

Creative Technology will be launching its range of Super X-Fi products in China online on Friday via live-streaming, it said on Thursday. Super X-Fi is a technology that Creative has put into its range of products such as headphones and gaming headsets, which promise the experience of a high-end multi-speaker system, making users feel like they are at the venue of a concert or in the environment of a game.

The manager of BHG Retail Real Estate Investment Trust (BHG Retail Reit) has terminated its proposed acquisition of a Beijijng outlet mall due to the "impact of Covid-19 on capital markets and the economy as well as the inherent unpredictability and evolving situation", it said in a bourse filing on Wednesday evening.

The ruler of Malaysia's Perlis state has sold a 30 per cent stake in F&N AgriValley Sdn Bhd back to Fraser & Neave's subsidiary Fraser & Neave Bhd (F&NHB), after a deal for the latter to acquire a plot of land in Malaysia for dairy farming and milk production got scrapped.

Mainboard-listed mDR has proposed to undertake a 100-for-one share consolidation, subject to shareholders' approval at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).

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