U.S. futures slid in Asian trading Friday after a clash between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Federal Reserve on its emergency lending facilities. Asian stocks looked set for a muted open.

S&P 500 contracts retreated after the Trump administration and the Fed publicly disagreed over whether to extend the pandemic programs. Technology shares had led U.S. benchmarks higher as investors weighed the impact of tougher virus restrictions against the prospect of a vaccine rollout in the months ahead. Shares of companies poised to do well during lockdowns outperformed. Futures were little changed in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong.

DBS Group Holdings will take over India's Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) in a deal orchestrated by the nation's central bank, the first time authorities have turned to a foreign lender to bail out a struggling local rival. Shares of Lakshmi Vilas tumbled after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said its stock and debentures would be delisted and ordered a 30-day moratorium as part of the proposal to stem a steady decline of depositors and a rise in bad loans.

Property and hospitality group Roxy-Pacific Holdings' wholly-owned subsidiary RL East will fork out S$93 million to acquire a freehold residential development site near the Aljunied and Mountbatten MRT stations. Located at 217-223A Guillemard Road and 1-21A Jalan Molek, the property occupies a total land area of about 3,450 square metres (sq m) or 37,131 square feet (sq ft). This will be the largest private residential transaction in the year to date, said Shaun Poh, Cushman & Wakefield's (C&W) executive director of capital markets.

Koufu Group expects operating profits for the second half of 2020 to be "significantly lower" than the year-ago period due to Covid-19's impact, as well as new outlets that are still in the stabilisation phase and have yet to contribute positively, the food and beverage group said on Thursday night. The group will also record a higher impairment loss on property, plant and equipment as well as right-of-use assets for FY 2020, compared to FY 2019, due to Covid-19. The negative impact will be mitigated to an extent by government grants and rental rebates. Compared to the first half of the year, H2's operating profits are still expected to see a "significant improvement".

New filings for unemployment benefits in the United States climbed to 742,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, reversing their recent decline amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. The rise in seasonally adjusted claims for the week ended Nov 14 was sharper than analysts had forecast and indicates the persistence of mass layoffs in the world's largest economy as lawmakers in Congress remain deadlocked on enacting a new stimulus measure that could help it weather the storm.

Singapore isn't expected to extend more virus aid until February's budget, when the government is likely to provide targeted help to its weakest sectors, according to a senior official. The city-state's economy is expected to be stable but still weak next year, with uneven performance across sectors as industries like aviation and tourism continue to struggle, Education Minister Lawrence Wong said Thursday in an interview. The government is starting to plan for the budget and will be conducting consultations soon.

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