Wall Street stock indices retreated from records on Monday as a heavy week of earnings got underway with results from Coca-Cola ahead of reports from Netflix, American Airlines and others. Analysts attributed Monday's pullback to profit taking after the Dow and S&P 500 finished last week at all-time highs. Earnings have generally outperformed expectations in the early going, but analysts say stocks may have difficulty climbing further.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4 per cent to close at 34,077.63. The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.5 per cent to 4,163.26, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.0 per cent to end at 13,914.77. Coca-Cola advanced 0.7 per cent after reporting better-than-expected results as some key markets show recovery amid broader coronavirus vaccine availability.

SG

Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) will set up a global maritime decarbonisation centre upon the proposal of the International Advisory Panel on Maritime Decarbonisation, Minister for Transport Ong Ye Kung said. At the launch of Singapore Maritime Week on Monday, Mr Ong said the International Advisory Panel on Maritime Decarbonisation has proposed the establishment of a global maritime decarbonisation centre in Singapore, where a cluster of like-minded stakeholders can coordinate, drive and catalyse maritime decarbonisation solutions.

Gojek co-chief executive officer Andre Soelistyo is set to head the Indonesian app giant to be created when the transport and delivery provider merges with e-commerce company PT Tokopedia, according to people familiar with the matter. Indonesia's two most valuable startups are set to form a holding company called GoTo, of which Gojek's shareholders will have 58 per cent and Tokopedia's owners the rest, said the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private. Patrick Cao, president of Tokopedia, will retain that title at the new entity, they said.

Libra Group (SGX: 5TR) and its sole operating subsidiary Kin Xin Engineering have applied to the High Court for an extension of the existing moratoria which are due to expire on April 30, as the company intends to further discussions with a potential investor and its creditors. The application was made on April 16 and will be heard before the court on April 26, building solutions-provider Libra said in a Monday night bourse filing.

Nanofilm Technologies (SGX: MZH) has entered into a non-binding term sheet for a joint venture with Temasek to tap opportunities in the hydrogen energy economy. Sydrogen Energy, the joint venture between the nanotechnology solutions provider and Temasek subsidiary Venezio Investments, will apply Nanofilm's advanced materials surface solutions to critical components in fuel cell and electrolyser systems. This venture seeks to bring about a "tipping point" in the mass commercial adoption of the proprietary technology and fast-track the commercialisation of a wide range of fuel cell applications, Nanofilm said in a statement on Monday.

Hoe Leong Corporation's (SGX: H20) three wholly-owned subsidiaries Arkstar Offshore, Arkstar Voyager and Arkstar Unicorn have been placed under creditors' voluntary liquidation, the company said in a bourse filing on Monday. Hoe Leong, which provides vessel-chartering services for the oil and gas industry, said it is pursuing these moves following resolutions passed at extraordinary general meetings of the subsidiaries held on Monday.

Keppel Infrastructure Trust (KIT) (SGX: A7RU) saw a 15.6 per cent increase in operational cash flow in the first quarter, buoyed by strong year-on-year performance of infrastructure asset Ixom, as well as the trust's acquisition of Philippine Coastal Storage & Pipeline Corporation. Operational cash flows stood at S$66.5 million for the first three months of the year, up from S$57.5 million in the same period last year, KIT said in an update on Monday. Group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) recorded a 0.2 per cent dip to 97.9 million in Q1 2021, down from 98.1 million in Q1 2020.

Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) (SGX: Z74) would be reviewing its strategic options to ensure that Intouch Holdings and Advanced Info Service shareholders get the full benefit of the intrinsic value of the businesses, it said in a bourse filing on Monday. This comes after Thailand's power producer Gulf Energy Development made a conditional voluntary offer to buy all of Intouch Holdings' securities at 65 baht each. The energy company is founded by billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi and is listed on the Stock Exchange of

US

A version of social network Parler updated to curb incitements to violence has been cleared to return to Apple's (US: APPL) App Store, a US congressman said on Monday. A team at Apple devoted to reviewing whether apps submitted to its App Store conform to its policies has approved a modified version of Parler, which had become popular with conservatives before it was booted off online marketplaces.

Microsoft (US: MSFT) on Monday began a trial run of letting people play Xbox cloud games using Apple mobile devices as well as Windows-powered computers. The small test spread across 22 countries is a step by the Xbox maker to allow games typically confined to consoles to be played using smartphones, tablets or personal computers. The list of countries included the Britain, France and the United States.

Zoom Video Communications (US: ZM) on Monday said it has created a US$100 million fund to invest in startup software companies that build apps using its technology. The video conferencing company has become a household name during the pandemic as businesses and schools shifted to its platform, along with rival platforms such as Microsoft Corp's (US: MSFT) Teams and Cisco Systems' (US: CSCO) Webex.

Britain said on Monday it would intervene in SoftBank's (TSE: 9984) sale of chip designer Arm Holdings to US group Nvidia (US: NVDA) on national security grounds, and had requested a report on the implications of the US$40 billion deal. Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: "Following careful consideration of the proposed takeover of Arm, I have today issued an intervention notice on national security grounds.

Microsoft Corporation (US: MSFT) will invest US$1 billion over the next five years in Malaysia as part of a new partnership programme with government agencies and local companies, the South-east Asian nation's prime minister said on Monday. The announcement on what would be the US tech giant's biggest investment in Malaysia comes after the country in February gave conditional approvals for Microsoft (US: MSFT), Google (US: GOOG), Amazon (US: AMZN) and state telecoms firm Telekom Malaysia to build and manage hyper-scale data centres and provide cloud services.

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