Stocks in Asia Pacific were set for a lower start as the S&P 500 stateside rose to a new record overnight. Futures pointed to a lower open for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 23,050 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 23,040. That compared against the Nikkei 225′s last close at 23,051.08. Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 erased its coronavirus losses as it rose to an all-time high. The broader market index advanced 0.2% to 3,389.78, a record close. It also touched an intraday all-time high, reaching 3,395.06 earlier in the trading day stateside. The Nasdaq Composite also hit a record, gaining 0.7% to finish its trading day at 11,210.84. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 66.84 points, or 0.2%, to close at 27,778.07.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) will shed about 140 jobs, or 5 per cent of the media group’s headcount, as it restructures its media sales and magazine operations. The exercise comes as the group seeks to transform its media business and as it grapples with declining advertising revenue owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Myanmar-focused conglomerate Yoma Strategic Holdings on Tuesday reported that its group revenue rose by 3.2 per cent to US$19.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, from US$18.6 million a year ago. The boost to the top line came largely from its real estate development business as well as the motors arm, according to the mainboard-listed firm’s trading update released on Tuesday morning.

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday revised its outlook to negative from stable for Ascott Real Estate Investment Trust (Ascott Reit), one part of mainboard-listed stapled group Ascott Residence Trust (ART). The credit ratings agency also affirmed the real estate investment trust's (Reit) long-term issuer default rating at BBB, its BBB senior unsecured debt rating, as well as the BBB long-term ratings on its S$2 billion multicurrency medium-term note programme and the outstanding senior unsecured notes under the programme.

StarHub said it is giving customers on its new Mobile+ and Biz+ mobile plans early 5G access, starting Aug 18. Customers on the plans will be able to automatically experience some early 5G benefits when they are on compatible mobile devices. This includes being able to "stream, game and surf super smoothly and reliably", the telco announced on Monday.

Catalist-listed Spackman Entertainment Group on Tuesday entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) to sell its entire 43.9 per cent stake in entertainment talent agency Spackman Media Group to Spackman Equities Group for at least 27.9 million South Korean won (S$32.2 million).

OCBC Bank has launched a new Sora-based home loan, which references the three-month compounded Singapore overnight rate average (Sora) that is published by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The three-month Compounded Sora Home Loan is available for all loan types - completed properties, properties under construction, new home loans and repricing of existing home loans.

Travellers from nine new cities, including three South-east Asian countries, will now be allowed to transit through Singapore, the Singapore Airlines (SIA) group announced on Tuesday, in its latest round of approvals. The three countries are: Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

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