Wall Street stocks retreated from records Tuesday following data showing higher inflation and lackluster retail sales, while petroleum-linked shares rallied with oil prices. The economic data pointed to a bumpy US recovery and came as the Federal Reserve began a two-day monetary policy meeting that will culminate with an announcement of its next steps Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.3 per cent at 34,299.33. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.2 per cent at 4,246.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 0.7 per cent to 14,072.86. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at records Monday.

Asian stocks looked set to slip after their U.S. peers retreated from all-time highs amid mixed economic data and a two-day Federal Reserve meeting. Crude oil traded at the highest level since 2018. Futures pointed lower in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. The 10-year Treasury yield lingered near 1.5% for most of the U.S. day after Commerce Department figures showed retail sales declined in May. Producer prices further stoked price pressures, rising more than expected in May. The dollar climbed versus major peers. Meanwhile in the crypto world, 80% of fund managers surveyed said they thought Bitcoin was still a bubble, even after May’s crash.

SG News

Mapletree Industrial Trust closes S$310.4m preferential offering at S$2.64 per unit was 176.3 per cent subscribed. About 117.6 million new units will be issued under the preferential offering to raise gross proceeds of S$310.4 million. It was done on the basis of five new units for every 100 existing units held. The new units are expected to be listed and quoted on the mainboard of the Singapore Exchange on June 21 at 9am, MIT's manager said in a regulatory filing late Tuesday night. Together with the S$512.9 million from the earlier private placement, total gross proceeds of around S$823.3 million have been raised from its equity fundraising exercise first announced on May 20.

Top Glove ousted from three ESG-related indices in latest review. Top Glove Corporation has been removed from three indices based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors - namely the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index, ASEAN 5 and Emerging Markets Index - following the FTSE4Good Index Semi Annual Review in June. In a media release on Monday, Bursa Malaysia announced a total of four deletions from the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index. The three other companies that were removed from the index were George Kent Malaysia, IOI Properties, as well as a stapled security comprising KLCC Property and KLCC real estate investment trusts (Reits). All constituent changes will take effect at the start of business on June 21, said Bursa Malaysia.

Asset sales in a liquidation process at Hyflux, Singapore's highest-profile distressed company, would likely bring in less than S$200 million, a person familiar with the matter said, a fraction of the amount creditors are claiming. Hyflux's judicial manager Borrelli Walsh filed a court application earlier this month to wind up the water-treatment and power company, and said there are six bids involving individual assets. Proceeds of that size from the liquidation would confirm creditors' concerns that they may get little back from the company, which began a court-supervised debt restructuring process in 2018 and faced about S$2.8 billion in total investor claims. Investors in the once-highflying firm include about 34,000 individuals who put money in products including perpetual notes and preference shares.

URA releases two land parcels at one-north's Slim Barracks Rise for sale. Two residential with commercial at first storey land sites at Slim Barracks Rise were released for sale on Tuesday, under the confirmed list of the first half 2021 government land sales (GLS) programme, announced the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Nicholas Mak, head of the research and consultancy department at ERA Singapore, estimates that the land parcels could each draw an estimated top bid of between S$1,080 and S$1,180 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), with possibly 10 to 15 bids when the tenders close at noon on Sept 28, 2021. The land plots are relatively small compared to other GLS sites, he said, which would attract small and medium-size developers, resulting in a higher number of bids.

Hanwell Holdings’ shares jump 11.4% after chairman Sam Goi ups stake for S$16.5m. Hanwell' non-executive chairman Sam Goi Seng Hui on Monday acquired 39.4 million shares of the company for some S$16.5 million, via an off-market transaction. This brings his stake in Hanwell to around 29.8 per cent, up from 22.7 per cent previously, the consumer products provider disclosed during Tuesday's mid-day break. Mr Goi had bought the shares held by former director Tang Cheuk Chee, said another bourse filing on Tuesday.

China Evergrande Group fell after Caixin's WeNews reported that a local government discussed paring the property giant's stake in a regional lender and a new policy could curb a key source of financing for developers. Authorities in the north-eastern Liaoning province held discussions with Evergrande to inject state capital into Shengjing Bank to dilute Evergrande's stake, according to a report by WeNews on Sunday, citing unidentified people. Evergrande is the biggest shareholder of the bank headquartered in Liaoning. No agreement has been reached yet, the report said, without specifying the reason. Evergrande and Shengjing Bank didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

US News

BMW-backed Solid Power seals SPAC deal at US$1.2b valuation. Solid Power, a maker of solid-state batteries backed by Ford Motor and BMW, confirmed it's agreed to merge with a blank-cheque firm in a deal that values the combined company at about US$1.2 billion. The electric-vehicle battery developer expects to complete its combination with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp III in the fourth quarter and list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SLDP, according to a statement. Bloomberg News reported last week the companies were in merger talks. Once the deal closes, Solid Power expects to have about US$600 million in cash, including US$165 million from a private investment in public equity, or PIPE. The Louisville, Colorado-based company expects to supply batteries that offer almost 500 miles (805km) of driving range to future Ford and BMW vehicles.

Singapore-based Carro now has its eyes set on the public markets in the next 18 to 24 months, with the Nasdaq as a potential listing destination. Whether an initial public offering (IPO) materialises depends on the company's growth rate. Used car marketplace Carro has raised US$360 million in Series C funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, which the company says gives it a valuation of more than US$1 billion. This is more than three times the startup's valuation from February last year, when it was valued at US$289.1 million after investments from Mitsubishi and MS&AD Ventures, data platform VentureCap Insights showed. EV Growth and other prominent Indonesia-based funds also participated in the Series C round.

Real estate prices around the world are flashing the kind of bubble warnings that haven't been seen since the run up to the 2008 financial crisis, according to Bloomberg Economics. New Zealand, Canada and Sweden rank as the world's frothiest housing markets, based on the key indicators used in the Bloomberg Economics dashboard. The UK and the US are also near the top of the risk rankings. "A cocktail of ingredients is sending house prices to unprecedented levels worldwide," economist Niraj Shah wrote in the report. "Record low interest rates, unparalleled fiscal stimulus, lockdown savings ready to be used as deposits, limited housing stock, and expectations of a robust recovery in the global economy are all contributing." Stay-at-home workers in need of more space and tax incentives offered by some governments to home buyers are also stoking demand.

US retail sales decline in May after two solid months of gains. This comes after a stimulus-related splurge in the prior two months, suggesting consumers are starting to shift more of their spending to services as the economy reopens. The total value of retail purchases fell 1.3 per cent in May following an upwardly revised 0.9 per cent gain in April, Commerce Department figures showed Tuesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 0.8 per cent decrease. For the last year, demand for goods has been propped up by elevated savings supported by fiscal stimulus, bringing total retail sales well above pre-pandemic levels. The May decline in retail sales suggests that as travel picks up and entertainment venues reopen, spending on goods is starting to moderate.

Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, is in talks with suppliers to secure direct access to raw materials for electric vehicle (EV) batteries via partnerships, one of its board members said. Europe's biggest carmaker is trying to extend its control over the industry's supply chain, which gives those with direct access to chips and lithium a decisive advantage to navigate bottlenecks and run plants at full capacity. The plan is also aimed at catching up with rivals, including Tesla and BMW, which have already struck supply deals with producers of lithium, the most important ingredient in EV batteries.

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