U.S. futures opened higher Monday amid optimism about some progress on stimulus talks in Washington. Asian stocks looked set for gains.

S&P 500 Index futures gained after the gauge closed higher for a third week on Friday. Contracts in Japan and Hong Kong also rose and Australian stocks edged higher. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi set a Tuesday deadline for more progress with the White House after lengthy discussions at the weekend with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The pound held its ground after a report officials were prepared to water down controversial Brexit legislation in a move that could revive failing talks with the European Union, as well as a credit rating cut by Moody’s Investors Service.

Debt-laden KrisEnergy has applied for permission to convene a meeting of the scheme creditors as well as an extension to its debt moratorium for two months, the upstream oil and gas company said in a regulatory filing on Friday. The High Court will hear these applications on Oct 30, and has directed that whoever objects to these requests is to file an affidavit by Oct 22, 4pm. KrisEnergy said that the meeting of the scheme creditors will only allow those scheme creditors in a contractual relationship with the company to vote by appointing the chairman of the meeting.

Keppel DC Reit will become a component stock of the Straits Times Index (STI) on Oct 19, as another Reit - CapitaLand Commercial Trust (CCT) - leaves the STI in preparation for its merger with CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT).Singapore Exchange (SGX) said in market updates issued on Thursday that Keppel DC Reit with a market capitalisation of S$4,817 million was the largest stock on the STI reserve list as at Oct 14.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) continues to report strong cargo load factor for September as capacity contraction outpaced decline in cargo traffic. The flag carrier, in its monthly operating results filed with the Singapore Exchange, said that September's cargo load factor improved 29.5 percentage points year-on-year to 89 per cent.

Malaysian glove-makers are threatening to supplant the once-mighty gaming companies in the nation's benchmark equity index, thanks to the spectacular rally in their shares. Supermax and Kossan Rubber Industries may join bigger rivals Top Glove and Hartalega Holdings in the 30-stock FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index after a review of the gauge's members in November or December, said analysts at Maybank Investment Bank and Smartkarma. The two stocks are expected to replace casino giant Genting and its unit, Genting Malaysia.

Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) spin-off company Nanofilm Technologies is heading for a mainboard listing on the Singapore Exchange with Temasek Holdings as a substantial shareholder. A Reuters report cited three sources with knowledge of the matter that the initial public offering (IPO) could raise up to S$510 million, making it one of the largest non-Reit mainboard listings in recent years here. This would also be the first mainboard listing since March.

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