Wall Street stocks finished modestly higher on Thursday following a choppy session as investors weighed mixed economic data with an effort on Capitol Hill to revive stimulus talks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.2 per cent to 26,815.44. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 3,246.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 per cent to 10,672.27. Markets got a lift midday on news that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved to assemble a new spending bill to boost the US economy. Reports said Pelosi is eyeing a US$2.4 trillion bill, still much bigger than the package that Republicans have favoured.

US weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise, with the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly increased last week, supporting views the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic was running out of steam amid diminishing government funding.

Sales of new homes in the US unexpectedly advanced for a fourth month in August to the highest level in almost 14 years as record-low mortgage rates continued to entice buyers into a market with ever-shrinking supply.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation has priced S$200 million in 3 per cent perpetual capital securities, first callable in 2030, the mainboard-listed bank said on Thursday evening. Net proceeds from the issuance, a private placement under OCBC's US$30 billion global medium-term note programme, will be used for general corporate purposes. The capital securities are expected to qualify as Additional Tier 1 capital for OCBC, with a "Baa1" rating from Moody's Investors Service.

Hanwell Holdings' executive chairman is off the board, with the company adding that it had not been aware of his disqualifying bankruptcy until Wednesday. Allan Yap, 64, who has been chairman since 2002, stepped down on Wednesday, said a late-night bourse filing from Hanwell on Thursday.

ESR Cayman has sold a 35 per cent stake in ESR Australia Logistics Partnership to Empire Trust 2, which is wholly owned by GIC real estate investment unit GIC (Realty) Pte Ltd, it said. The transaction would raise GIC's share in the ESR Australia Logistics Partnership to 80 per cent, with its commitment standing at A$480 million.

The global economic outlook is less bleak than in June, an International Monetary Fund spokesman said Thursday, signaling that the organisation's forecast will be raised when it is released next month. "The recent incoming data suggests that the outlook may be somewhat less dire than at the time of the (World Economic Outlook) update on June 24 with parts of the global economy beginning to turn the corner," the International Monetary Fund spokesman said.

Fed's Powell says evictions, mortgage defaults may rise without more fiscal aid. Failure to deliver more government aid to households could precipitate a wave of mortgage defaults and evictions, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday in a fresh warning amid a continued deadlock in Congress over another coronavirus relief package.

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