Asian stocks looked poised to track a small drop in U.S. peers after Treasury yields edged higher as investors assess how rising borrowing costs could impact the equity rally. The dollar weakened. U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as investors were discouraged by a worse-than-expected jobless claims reading as well as a weak forecast from Walmart.

Australian shares opened lower, while futures pointed down in Japan and Hong Kong after the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 both slipped. A report earlier showed initial jobless claims rose more than expected. Ten-year Treasury yields climbed as high as 1.32% before paring some of the increase. Crude oil extended a retreat amid a crisis caused by a U.S. cold snap.

The pound touched the strongest level versus the euro since March on continued optimism over the nation’s vaccine rollout. Bitcoin retreated to below $52,000. Lumber futures climbed to a record on Thursday and copper in London hit a fresh eight-year high.

SG

Heeton Holdings announced it expects to report a net operating loss for the year ended Dec 31, 2020 as its businesses were impacted by the continued spread of Covid-19. In a pre-market bourse filing on Thursday, the property developer said movement and travel restrictions have led to its malls and hotels experiencing decreases in rentals, room occupancies and rates, and corresponding revenue across the locations it operates in worldwide.

Dining group Katrina Group, which includes brands Bali Thai and So Pho, anticipates a loss for FY2020 ended December, the Catalist-listed company announced in a Thursday bourse filing after the market close. The expected loss is due to lower revenue amid the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as impairment losses on some non-current assets, Katrina said. It will announce its full-year results on or before March 1.

KIM, a wholly-owned unit of OCBC, has acquired the remaining 51 per cent stake it did not already own in Malaysia-incorporated Horizon Asset Management for RM2.55 million (S$837,650) in cash. This makes Horizon a fully-owned unit of OCBC. In a bourse filing on Thursday, OCBC said that the was consideration determined based on the mutually agreed price of RM1 for each issue share of Horizon held by the existing shareholder, Sharosu Assets. The audited net tangible asset value represented by the acquisition was about RM420,000 as of end-2019. The acquisition is not expected to have any material impact on OCBC's performance for the year ended December 2021.

KEPPEL Reit's manager on Thursday proposed a private placement of between 235.6 million and 242.8 million new units at an issue price of between S$1.112 and S$1.146 per new unit to raise at least S$270 million in gross proceeds. The manager said in a bourse filing that it will use about S$262.5 million or 97.2 per cent of the gross proceeds to partially fund the real estate investment trust's (Reit) S$651.5 million acquisition of Keppel Bay Tower from sponsor Keppel Land, the property arm of Keppel Corporation.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is exploring mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to drive its ambitions as a multi-asset exchange. The bourse has operations in place across asset classes and now will concentrate on bolstering them, chief executive officer Loh Boon Chye said in an interview on Wednesday. That means seeking deals that bulk up the foreign exchange, fixed income, data and capital markets connectivity businesses. SGX had previously set a goal to have the fixed income, currencies and commodities segment, along with data, connectivity and indices, double revenues by about 2025. It may reach that goal before the initial target date, he said, adding the segments combined could account for 50 per cent of revenue by then.

Mequity Hills, a new associate of property developer Roxy-Pacific Holdings, has entered an agreement to acquire a 999-year leasehold residential site at 10A and 10B Institution Hill for S$33.6 million. The site has an estimated total land area of 8,761 sq ft and has a plot ratio of 2.8 under the 2019 Master Plan for residential development, Roxy-Pacific said in a Thursday bourse filing after the market close. Mequity Hills intends to amalgamate the site with another 999-year leasehold site at 11 Institution Hill, after it exercises the Option To Purchase issued on Feb 1, 2021 to acquire it.

US

Facebook banned a large swathe of non-news pages in Australia in its attempt to remove news content from its platform. The bans were made by Facebook in response to a drafted new media law in the country that will require online platforms like Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for displaying and linking to their content. Dozens of Facebook pages belonging to charities, small businesses, public services and governments were all removed, raising concerns that people could miss out on vital information. The Australian government has slammed Facebook’s decision to block users in the country from all news content on its platform — a move that ended up affecting access to several government sites. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison called Facebook’s move “arrogant” and “disappointing,” while Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it was “wrong” and “unnecessary.”

Walmart on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations as the retailer aims to turn the strength of its e-commerce business during the pandemic into lasting momentum and higher profits by boosting investment. Shares were down more than 5% in premarket trading, as investors reacted to the retailer’s warning that it expects sales to moderate this year. It said earnings per share will decline slightly, but will range flat to higher after excluding divestitures. The big-box retailer has benefited from pandemic trends, as Americans buy more groceries, cleaning products and other essentials. It also got a boost in the fiscal fourth quarter as many customers spent their stimulus checks. But the pandemic has also increased its costs — in the fourth quarter alone Covid-related expenses tallied $1.1 billion.

Boeing Co.’s board drew criticism for being ineffective, with accountants outnumbering engineers, when the planemaker botched its response to two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jetliner. Now the council is in the middle of wholesale makeover. Two longtime board directors are stepping down when their terms expire in April, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Former Medtronic Chief Executive Officer Arthur Collins Jr., is leaving after a 14-year stint, along with former U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, who has been a director since 2010.

Bitcoin’s incredible rally shows little sign of abating yet after the token jumped past $52,000 for the first time. The largest cryptocurrency was little changed in Asian trading Thursday at about $52,100 after a fivefold surge in the past year. Bitcoin’s rally for some is emblematic of speculative froth in financial markets awash with stimulus. The crypto faithful counter that the digital asset is grabbing more mainstream attention, especially after Tesla Inc.’s recent $1.5 billion purchase. MicroStrategy Inc. boosted its convertible debt sale to buy Bitcoin by nearly half to $900 million and cut the coupon to 0%, making it virtually a straight bet on the price of the cryptocurrency.

The chiefs of Robinhood, Reddit, Citadel and Melvin Capital, are headed to Washington for Thursday’s highly anticipated GameStop hearing at the U.S. Congress. Lawmakers will get their chance to grill the CEOs, as well as the Reddit trading star known as Roaring Kitty, about last month’s GameStop trading turmoil.

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