Treasury yields rose and bank shares lifted U.S. equities as lawmakers in Washington continued to haggle over a spending bill. Asian stocks looked set for a mixed start as traders readied for the final presidential debate. Futures edged higher in Japan, and were little changed in Hong Kong and Australia. S&P 500 contracts edged up after the benchmark closed higher with financial stocks rallying almost 2%. The 10-year Treasury yield popped to 0.84%, its highest since June, amid data showing the labor market is still gradually recovering. The dollar strengthened. Intel Corp. tumbled in after-hours trading after a tepid forecast.

First Reit's manager will be extending a further two months of rental relief - for September and October - to all its tenants in Indonesia, a sum amounting to S$18.9 million, it said in a filing on Thursday evening. This comes on top of the rental relief for the months of May and June. Covid-19 cases in Indonesia are continuing to escalate; the country recorded its highest number of monthly cases last month, and the figure was itself a 69 per cent rise from the previous month, said the manager.

Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) has declared a distribution per unit (DPU) of 4.17 Singapore cents for  its first half ended Sept 30, down 9.9 per cent from a year ago, said the real estate investment trust's manager on Thursday after market close. Unitholders will receive the distribution on Nov 27. Distributable income ticked up 3.2 per cent to S$138.42 million, as S$15 million was released to unitholders in the first half. This comes as MCT had earlier made capital-allowance claims and retained capital distribution to conserve liquidity in view of the uncertain Covid-19 pandemic in the fourth quarter of FY 19/20.

Singtel's information, communications and technology (ICT) arm NCS has acquired regional digital services consultancy 2359 Media for an undisclosed sum. 2359 Media will become part of NCS's NEXT digital arm. 2359 Media was founded in 2009 and specialises in leveraging cloud-based technologies to develop custom-built mobile apps, platforms and websites. Its clients come from sectors such as financial services, media, healthcare and retail.

Frasers Centrepoint Trust's (FCT) preferential offering to raise about S$759.7 million in gross proceeds has been fully subscribed, the manager said in a bourse filing late on Wednesday. Valid acceptances and excess applications stood at about 460.4 million, 1.4 times the total number of preferential offering units available.

Keppel Corp's wholly-owned subsidiary Lipalton has completed its investment into Kapstone Constructions, and now holds 49 per cent of the latter's total voting rights. Kapstone is Lipalton's joint venture (JV) with Indian developer Rustomjee Group, to develop the 51.4 hectare Urbania integrated township in the Thane district of Mumbai.

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