Joe Biden looks to be on the brink of winning the White House, but President Donald Trump is far from giving up. The Democrat is one state shy of the needed electoral votes after taking Wisconsin and Michigan, and said he is confident he will win once the remaining votes are counted. Meanwhile Trump opened a legal fight to stop the tallies in at least two states and claimed without evidence that he's being cheated from victory. Biden is leading in Nevada, while his campaign believes absentee votes in Georgia will push him over the top.

Asian stocks looked set for gains after U.S. equities and bonds climbed, as investors showed confidence that the tightly contested election outcome would ensure key elements of the bull market remain intact. The S&P 500 rose more than 2% and the Nasdaq 100 surged more than 4% in its best rally since April. Equity futures rose in Japan and Hong Kong, and the offshore yuan advanced. The failure by the Democrats to clearly sweep Congress and the White House pares back bets that traders had made on a massive fiscal stimulus package. The dollar weakened against many of its major peers, while gold slipped.

DBS Group reported net profit of SGD 1.30 billion for third-quarter 2020, up 4% from the previous quarter. Business momentum improved as fee income rebounded 17% to pre-Covid levels, softening the impact of lower interest rates as well as a decline in trading income from a high base. Total income fell 4% to SGD 3.58 billion while profit before allowances was 9% lower at SGD 2.04 billion. Nine-month total allowances quadruple on year to SGD 2.49 billion, including general allowances of SGD 1.50 billion.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (“OCBC Bank”) reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2020 (“3Q20”). Group net profit for 3Q20 of S$1.03 billion was 41% higher as compared to S$730 million in the previous quarter (“2Q20”), largely driven by a fall in allowances. The Group’s operating profit before allowances was S$1.59 billion, down 5% QoQ, as lower net interest income and trading income more than offset increases in fee-based income. Net interest income was 4% lower at S$1.42 billion, as a result of lower market rates which drove a 6 basis points contraction in net interest margin (“NIM”).

Yangzijiang Shipbuilding has reported earnings of RMB585.2 million for 3QFY20, down 17% y-o-y, as its bottom line was hit by forex losses and impairment. Revenue in the same period was RMB3.58 billion, down 34% y-o-y, due to lower trading volume. During the quarter, the company booked forex losses of RMB291 million and made an impairment of RMB190 million too. The company has been winning new ship building orders. Year to date, it has secured contracts totalling US$834 million to build 29 vessels. Its total order book now stands at around US$2.4 billion for 67 vessels, to be delivered over the next year or so.

Property giant City Developments Ltd (CDL) on Wednesday said it has appointed Deloitte & Touche Financial Advisory Services as its external financial adviser to assist in further evaluating and reviewing its investment in China-based Sincere Property Group. This comes after CDL director Kwek Leng Peck resigned last month, citing disagreements with the board and management on the group's investment in Sincere, as well as its management of London-based unit, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels.

Mainboard-listed AEM Holdings has raised its FY2020 revenue guidance to between S$500 million and S$520 million based on sales order visibility and business outlook. This comes as the group announced a near doubling of revenue year on year for the fiscal third quarter ended Sept 30. AEM, which provides advanced chip-testing solutions, previously announced on Sept 10 an upward revision to its revenue guidance to be between S$480 million and S$500 million for FY 2020.

Parkway Life Real Estate Investment Trust's (Parkway Life Reit) distribution per unit (DPU) rose 7.4 per cent to 3.54 Singapore cents for its third quarter ended Sept 30, 2020, from 3.3 cents a year ago. Gross revenue was up 0.8 per cent to S$30.2 million for the quarter, from S$29.9 million the year before. This was largely due to contributions from three Japan nursing rehabilitation facilities acquired in Q4 2019, higher rent from Singapore properties as well as the appreciation of yen, the Reit manager said on Wednesday.

Final phase of the reopening will not be a return to pre-Covid status quo, but to a new normal. Phase Three of Singapore's reopening could last for more than a year, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong in Parliament on Wednesday, replying to a question from Tampines Member of Parliament Cheng Li Hui.

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