Wall Street stocks plunged on Wednesday on rising worries about coronavirus lockdowns as France and Germany announced tough new restrictions and US cases continued to climb.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 3.4 per cent, or more than 940 points, to 26,519.95. The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 3.5 per cent to 3,271.03, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dove 3.7 per cent to 11,004.87.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced that bars, restaurants and non-essential businesses will be forced to close for at least a month, a decision that came only hours after German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced similar measures in Europe's largest economy. The moves are certain to weigh on Europe's economy and sharpen worries that the US could follow suit in the coming weeks if cases continue to mount.

STARHILL Global Real Estate Investment Trust's (SGReit) revenue for the first quarter ended Sept 30 fell 10.3 per cent to S$43.1 million, while its net property income (NPI) dropped 19.2 per cent to S$ 29.8 million. The fall was mainly due to rental assistance doled out to eligible tenants affected by the pandemic, including allowance for rental arrears and rebates - which were mainly for its Australia properties.

KEPPEL Corp's infrastructure arm has clinched a S$300 million contract to build, own and operate a new district cooling system plant for 30 years in the Jurong Innovation District (JID). The new plant is expected to be completed by 2022 and will have a capacity of 14,000 refrigeration tonnes.

SECOND Chance Properties saw a fall in net profit of 66 per cent year on year (yoy) for the six months ended Aug 31, to S$914,000. Its full-year net profit, however, fell by only 6 per cent yoy to S$4.45 million. This was thanks to a strong 1H in which it posted a net profit of S$3.53 million.

French luxury goods giant LVMH will pay US$131.50 per share to buy Tiffany, US$3.50 less than what was agreed in last November, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. The two sides have been facing off in a Delaware court, with Tiffany seeking to force LVMH to buy the company for US$135 per share.

Mastercard's quarterly profit missed analyst estimates on Wednesday as the Covid-19 pandemic led to a slowdown in global travel and related spending. Net income fell 28 per cent to US$1.5 billion, or US$1.51 per share, in the third quarter ended Sept 30. Excluding items, profit was US$1.60 per share, missing Street estimates of US$1.66, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Pressured by another quarterly loss, Boeing announced additional job cuts as it adapts to a prolonged downturn in the aviation industry. The planemaker, which has been in belt-tightening mode throughout 2020, plans to eliminate about 7,000 more jobs through the end of 2021. Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of US$449 million, compared with profits of US$1.2 billion in the year-ago period.

United Parcel Service beat profit expectations on Wednesday, helped by a surge in home deliveries due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Average daily volumes in the United States rose 13.8 per cent on continued strength in residential demand, the company said.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group, a Chinese tutoring, test preparation and private school operator, is looking to raise as much as HK$11.9 billion (S$2.09 billion) in its second listing in Hong Kong. It has set a maximum price of HK$1,399 for the portion of the deal being marketed to Hong Kong's retail investors, which represents a premium of almost 7 per cent over Tuesday's closing price of US$168.81 for its American Depositary Shares (ADS). One ADS represents one ordinary share.

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