Asian stocks looked poised for a mixed start Thursday amid signs that a U.S. stimulus package is unlikely to become law before next month’s election. Treasuries and the dollar fell.

Futures dipped in Japan and Australia, and rose in Hong Kong. S&P 500 contracts opened were little changed after the index earlier closed modestly lower in a volatile session. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued talks with White House representatives even as the odds remained long for a deal that could pass in the Senate. The yield on 10-year Treasuries closed above 0.8% at the highest since June. The offshore yuan continued to strengthen.

The manager of Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) has announced that it intends to acquire a warehouse in Brisbane, Australia, for A$114 million via the acquisition of all the units in the property trust holding the property from Alset Australian Mid TC. Following this acquisition, MLT will have three properties in Brisbane and a total of 13 properties with over 347,287 square metres of leasable space in Australia.

Catalist-listed medical eye-care services provider ISEC Healthcare posted a net profit of S$2.58 million for the third quarter ended Sept 30, up 47 per cent from a year ago, on the back of the absence of an impairment loss and the addition of government grants and rental rebates from Covid-19 support measures. Revenue ticked up 3 per cent to S$11.17 million, as its Malaysian eye centre Indah Specialist, acquired on Feb 27, 2020, contributed to the group's revenue. No dividend was declared, as was the case in the previous year.

Keppel Infrastructure Trust (KIT) announced on Tuesday that its distributable cash flow (DCF) fell 18.8 per cent to S$45.2 million in its third quarter. In a business update released after trading hours, it attributed the drop mostly to a fall in DCF for the distribution and network sector, which fell 32.9 per cent to S$22.98 million. Its waste and water segment also shrank 3.8 per cent to S$17.9 million. However, this was offset by the energy sector, which rose 15.7 per cent to S$12.5 million.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will return to New York from Nov 9 with non-stop flights to New York's John F Kennedy International Airport as it seeks to rebuild its network. At over 18 hours long, the new service is the world's longest, and will be operated thrice weekly. The flag carrier's non-stop service to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey previously held that title, but the airline halted the route in March as the pandemic paralysed travel. It operates non-stop services to Los Angeles, but has suspended its direct service to San Francisco. SIA also served JFK through a one-stop service via Frankfurt.

DBS has launched a solution for corporate clients in Singapore and Hong Kong to track cross-border collections, or inward payments in real time, providing them with greater digital convenience. More than 240,000 DBS corporate and small and medium-sized enterprises will be the first to utilise the solution, which is powered by Swift Global Payments Innovation (gpi), the bank said on Wednesday.

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