Wall Street stocks finished mostly lower on Tuesday amid worries over the economy and Covid-19 as well as lackluster consumer data and mixed earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.8 per cent to 27,463.19. The broad-based S&P 500 declined 0.3 per cent to 3,390.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.6 per cent to 11,431.35.

President Donald Trump said Congress will approve a pandemic rescue package for the US economy after the November 3 election, seeming to concede defeat on efforts to reach a deal before voters decide whether to give him a second term.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board reported that US consumer confidence in October lagged analyst expectations. "Consumers' assessment of current conditions improved while expectations declined, driven primarily by a softening in the short-term outlook for jobs," The Conference Board's senior director of economic indicators Lynn Franco said.

The distribution per unit (DPU) of Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) fell to 3.10 Singapore cents for the second quarter ended Sept 30, from 3.13 cents a year ago. This is despite distributable income rising 14.8 per cent to S$72.9 million on the back of higher net property income and distributions declared by joint ventures; distributable income was, however, partially offset by higher manager's management fees.

Malaysia's Supermax has proposed listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to expand its shareholder base, it said in a bourse filing on Tuesday. Supermax, the third largest rubber glove maker in Malaysia by market value, said the proposed listing is still in the initial stages, with more details to be announced if and when its board finalises the plan and approves it.

Ping An Insurance, China's largest insurer by market value, said third-quarter profit rose 8 per cent as its businesses recovered from the coronavirus pandemic and a stock-market rally bolstered investment returns. Net income climbed to 34.4 billion yuan (S$6.97 billion) in the three months ended Sept 30, from 31.9 billion yuan a year earlier.

HSBC Holdings posted a 35 per cent drop in quarterly profit, better than expected, as higher loan loss provisions on the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic were cushioned by the reining in of expenses. Reported pretax profit for Europe's biggest bank by assets came in at US$3.1 billion for the quarter ended Sept 30, down from US$4.8 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Home-rental startup Airbnb said on Tuesday it plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq, setting the stage for yet another blockbuster tech listing on US stock exchanges. Airbnb, which did not give a timeline for when it may complete its IPO, has seen demand for its services recover from the nosedive caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Advanced Micro Devices agreed to buy Xilinx for US$35 billion in stock, taking the chipmaker into more diverse and profitable markets and adding to its data centre offerings. Xilinx investors will get 1.7234 AMD shares for each Xilinx stock they own. That values Xilinx at about US$143 a share, 25 per cent more than the closing price on Monday and 35 per cent above the price before news of a possible deal was reported earlier in October.

Microsoft on Tuesday said its profit in the recently ended quarter continued to soar as the pandemic boosted a trend toward business being taken care of in the internet cloud. The US technology titan's profit rose to US$13.9 billion, up 30 per cent from the same quarter last year, according to earnings figures. Revenue in the quarter climbed 12 per cent to US$37.2 billion.

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