Wall Street stocks rocketed higher again on Wednesday with the Nasdaq ending above 12,000 for the first time as investors shrugged off disappointing employment data and a cautious Federal Reserve report. The surge came despite disappointing hiring data from private payrolls firm ADP and a tepid assessment of US economic conditions from the Federal Reserve.

The Fed noted "rising instances of furloughed workers being laid off permanently as demand remained soft," especially in the hard-hit services industries.

Home and vehicle sales were strong but "many districts noted a slowing pace of growth in these areas, and total spending was still far below pre-pandemic levels," the Fed said in its beige book survey of economic conditions.

The chief executive of QT Vascular has been offloading his shares in the medtech firm over the last two days, according to a filing with the Singapore Exchange.

Centurion Corp has secured a tender by JTC Corporation to lease and manage up to 6,400 beds in four new foreign workers dormitories in Singapore, it said on Wednesday. The dormitories are among the new Quick Build Dormitories (QBDs) whose development was announced by the Singapore government in June.

OCBC will make revisions to its flagship savings account from Oct 1, raising the minimum amount to earn the maximum interest rate. This comes as the lender has introduced a middle tier on its 360 account amid the prolonged low interest rate environment. It marks the third time since May that OCBC has made changes to the account.

India on Wednesday banned another 118 mobile apps including Tencent Holdings's popular videogame PUBG, as it stepped up the pressure on Chinese technology companies following a standoff with Beijing at the border. The list of 118 mostly Chinese apps also includes applications from Baidu and Xiaomi's ShareSave.

Amazon.com Inc has added insurance and even gold to its menu of financial services in India, to expand its customer base and attract more subscribers to its Prime loyalty programme in a battleground growth market.

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