Asian stocks looked set for a mixed start to Friday trading as investors weighed prospects for a stimulus deal in Washington against disappointing U.S. jobs data. Treasuries gained and U.S. shares ended a volatile session modestly lower. Futures were little changed in Japan, edged higher in Hong Kong and slipped in Australia. The S&P 500 dipped for a second day without any signs of a breakthrough on the top issues that have held up a deal by lawmakers. The pound slid as U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Britain should prepare to leave the EU without a trade deal.

In an update on its preferential offering, CapitaLand Retail China Trust (CRCT) said that it had received valid acceptances and excess applications for a total of 133.77 million preferential offering units at the close of the offering. This represents about 194 per cent of the total number of preferential offering units available. The balance 18.29 million preferential offering units which were not validly accepted will be allotted to satisfy applications for excess new units, said CRCT, with preference given to the rounding of odd lots. A total of 68.99 million units will be issued at S$1.17 to raise some S$80.7 million. They were offered on the basis of 56 preferential offering units for every 1,000 existing units held.

Keppel Reit has obtained A$300 million (S$299.8 million) in green loans from UOB and BNP Paribas, its manager said on Wednesday evening in a bourse filing. The Reit will use part of the loans for financing the real estate investment trust's acquisition of Pinnacle Office Park, a freehold Grade A commercial property in Sydney's Macquarie Park. The manager expects the deal to complete in Q4 2020.

DBS on Thursday announced that it will set up a digital exchange, which includes a cryptocurrency trading platform that will launch from next week. The platform will facilitate trading between four fiat currencies - the Singapore dollar, US dollar, Hong Kong dollar and Japanese yen - and four established cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and XRP.

The manager of Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust (FLCT) has entered into a sales and purchase agreements to divest three leasehold industrial properties in South Australia, it said on Thursday. The total consideration for the properties is A$29.6 million (S$29.5 million), which represents a 19.4 per cent premium to their book value of A$24.8 million as at Sept 30, 2020, the manager said in the exchange filing.

Del Monte Pacific reported a net profit of US$21.85 million for the second quarter ended Oct 31, 2020, reversing from a loss of US$37.35 million a year ago. The corresponding quarter last year saw its earnings impacted by one-off expenses. Revenue rose nearly 12 per cent year-on-year to US$623.45 million, fuelled by higher sales in the US and the Philippines. Earnings per share for the quarter worked out to 0.87 US cents, versus a loss per share of 2.18 US cents a year ago.

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