The Singapore stock market on Wednesday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had collected almost 30 points or 1 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 2,925-point plateau and it's likely to see little movement on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement in light trade ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, with some of the markets already on break. The European bourses were soft and the U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday as losses from the properties were offset by gains from the financial shares.
For the day, the index slipped 9.43 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 2,925.84 after trading between 2,919.98 and 2,938.21. Volume was 2.28 billion shares worth 1.14 billion Singapore dollars. There were 236 gainers and 230 decliners.
Among the actives, Genting Singapore plummeted 2.81 percent, while Thai Beverage plunged 2.42 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust tanked 2.02 percent, CapitaLand skidded 1.57 percent, SembCorp Industries tumbled 1.19 percent, Ascendas REIT retreated 0.97 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding jumped 0.96 percent, Dairy Farm International declined 0.91 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation climbed 0.86 percent, SATS surrendered 0.73 percent, City Developments sank 0.68 percent, Comfort DelGro dropped 0.63 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust shed 0.48 percent, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust lost 0.47 percent, Singapore Airlines fell 0.46 percent, SingTel slid 0.41 percent, Singapore Exchange added 0.41 percent, Wilmar International dipped 0.37 percent, DBS Group gained 0.27 percent, United Overseas Bank collected 0.21 percent and Keppel Corp, Singapore Technologies Engineering, UOL Group and Singapore Press Holdings were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as stocks showed a lack of direction again on Wednesday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finally ending mixed.
The Dow added 61.97 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 31,437.80, while the NASDAQ slid 35.16 points or 0.25 percent to end at 13,972.53 and the S&P 500 eased 1.35 points or 0.03 percent to close at 3,909.88.
Stocks initially moved higher following upbeat earnings news from big-name companies like Twitter (TWTR), Coca-Cola (KO), and Lyft (LYFT) but buying interest quickly waned as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets.
Stocks saw some strength in afternoon trading as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appeared to express support for more stimulus, as he said maintaining "patiently accommodative monetary policy" will be important to returning to a strong labor market but argued more needs to be done.
In economic news, the Labor Department said consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in January.
Crude oil prices continued to move higher on Wednesday, extending gains to an eighth straight session after data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended up $0.32 or 0.6 percent at $58.68 a barrel.
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