Asian stocks followed their U.S. counterparts lower Wednesday as earnings season began and there was no sign of a quick end to the fiscal stimulus stalemate. Treasuries and the dollar were steady. Stocks slipped in Japan and South Korea and were little changed in Australia. Hong Kong’s markets are expected to resume trading after a tropical storm forced closures on Tuesday. S&P 500 contracts ticked higher after banks earlier dragged down the U.S. benchmark, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. sinking as investors worried that third-quarter earnings signaled just a pause in pain from soured loans. Eli Lilly & Co. dropped after saying that enrollment in a government-sponsored clinical trial of its antibody therapy had been paused out of safety concerns.

MAINBOARD-LISTED Frasers Property Ltd (FPL), hard hit by the pandemic, expects to report a decline of as much as 70 per cent in its attributable profit for FY2020. The company, in a profit guidance on Tuesday on the unaudited financial results for the financial year ended Sept 30, said the novel coronavirus pandemic and the resulting subdued global economic environment have significantly hit its overall business performance.

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) on Tuesday posted its first ever net loss of S$83.7 million for the full year ended Aug 31, a reversal from a net profit of $213.2 million a year ago, as Covid-19 "severely disrupted" all business segments. The company, which publishes The Business Times, took a hit from non-cash fair value losses of S$232 million - mostly on its malls and purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) assets.

THE Singapore Exchange (SGX) and New Zealand's Exchange (NZX) on Tuesday signed a Heads of Agreement in relation to a global partnership to grow NZX's dairy derivatives market together. The non-binding agreement will explore the listing of NZX's suite of dairy derivatives contracts on SGX's trading and clearing platforms, the Singapore bourse said in a statement on Tuesday.

THE logistics and data centre arm of Keppel Corp is divesting its 24.01 per cent equity interest in Thailand-listed Business Online Public Company Limited (BOL) for about 827.6 million baht (S$36 million) in cash. Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation will sell a 20 per cent stake to CTOS Holdings Sdn Bhd and the other 4.01 per cent stake to Min Intanate. The latter is a director of BOL, according to the Thai company's website.

PANDEMIC beneficiary Medtecs International Corporation reported its third quarter financial results, in which its top line and net profit surged on explosive demand for personal protective equipment (PPE). It expects demand to be strong, given that the prospect of a safe and effective vaccine is still uncertain, said Medtecs in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The Catalist-listed medical products supplier's revenue for the quarter to September was 636 per cent higher at US$124.6 million; its net profit jumped 1,115 times to US$45.7 million.

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