Asian stocks were set to open higher Tuesday after optimism about the economic recovery drove U.S. shares to a record. Long-term Treasury yields edged lower. Futures were in the green in Japan and Hong Kong, and Australian shares rose. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 contracts were little changed. The S&P 500 Index gained for a fifth-straight session, led by utilities and real estate, while Apple Inc., Tesla Inc.and Facebook Inc. led the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 higher.

Australia’s 10-year bond yields dropped, following the decline in benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rates from the more than one-year high reached last week. Oil slipped and the dollar fluctuated. Bitcoin eased back from a weekend rally that propelled the cryptocurrency above $61,000.

SG:

The offeror for Penguin International has garnered about 59.71 per cent of the shares in the builder and operator of aluminium high-speed craft, as at Monday evening. Penguin stated in a regulatory statement on Monday that the total number of shares owned, controlled or agreed to be acquired by the offeror Emet Grace and persons acting in concert with it as well as valid acceptances of the offer represent approximately 59.71 per cent of the shares in the company as at Monday 6pm.

Days after Aztech Global made its debut on the Singapore Exchange, United Overseas Bank as its stabilising manager purchased 10 million shares of the counter in the open market at S$1.28 on Monday. This came following the technology company's listing at S$1.28 the previous Friday, when it closed merely a cent above the initial public offering (IPO) price.

The Guoco Group unit looking to take GL private has raised its offer price by 14.3 per cent or S$0.10 to S$0.80 per offer share, from S$0.70 previously. The offeror - GuocoLeisure Holdings - does not intend to increase the final price "under any circumstances whatsoever", hotel operator GL said in a bourse filing on Monday. The new offer price represents a premium of 42.9 per cent over the last transacted price of S$0.56 on Jan 14 - the last trading day before the proposed privatisation was announced.

Silkroad Nickel has inked an offtake agreement worth over US$90 million to supply 2.7 million metric tonnes of high-grade nickel ore to a Tsingshan Group unit. The Catalist-listed laterite nickel ore producer in Indonesia announced the deal in a regulatory statement on Monday, saying it will supply PT Ekasa Yad Resources 2.7 million metric tonnes of high-grade nickel ore from this month till December 2022, with a minimum quantity of 50,000 metric tonnes per month.

US:

New York-based brand acquisition and management firm WHP Global said on Monday it had taken a controlling interest in Toys 'R' Us parent, Tru Kids, more than three years after the toy retailer filed for bankruptcy. Tru Kids, owned by investment funds including Solus Alternative Asset Management, had taken charge of assets including Toys "R" Us and Babies 'R' Us in early 2019, as part of a plan to revive the brands after the retailer's bankruptcy.

Netflix has started testing a feature that could prod users who are borrowing a password from someone outside their household to buy a subscription.The company said the feature was being tested with a limited number of users. It may signal a broader clampdown on the common practice of sharing passwords among relatives and friends to avoid paying for the popular streaming service.

Facebook, which has been criticised by lawmakers and researchers for allowing vaccine misinformation to spread on its platforms, said on Monday (March 15) that it has started adding labels to posts that discuss the safety of the shots and will soon label all posts about the vaccines. The social media company said in a blog post that it is also launching a tool in the United States to give people information about where to get Covid-19 vaccines and adding a Covid-19 information area to its photo-sharing site Instagram.

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