Singapore Stock Market May Open Under Water Again On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market ticked lower again on Thursday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had slipped more than 25 points or 0.4 percent. The STI now sits just beneath the 5,400-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft with renewed selling pressure likely among the technology stocks. The European markets were up and the U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.

The STI finished barely lower on Thursday following losses from the technology stocks, gains from the healthcare companies and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index dipped 1.88 points or 0.03 percent to finish at 5,396.03 after trading between 5,394.71 and 5,439.50.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water on Thursday and stayed that way throughout the trading day, although they came off session lows.

The Dow shed 132.54 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 52,342.56, while the NASDAQ tumbled 365.13 points or 1.38 percent to end at 26,184.72 and the S&P 500 sank 23.59 points or 0.30 percent to close at 7,720.39.

The sharp pullback by the NASDAQ came as technology stocks came under pressure as concerns about artificial trade once again resurfaced on Wall Street.

Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) led the way lower, plunging by 13.2 percent after reporting weaker-than-expected third quarter revenue as well as negative free cash flow.

On the U.S. economic front, a closely watched report from the Commerce Department showed consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in the month of September.

Crude oil prices moved lower on Thursday on expectations of a possible de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict as Qatar presses Iran to negotiate with the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.79 or 0.77 percent at $101.99 per barrel.

Closer to home, Singapore will see unemployment figures for the third quarter later today; in the previous three months, the jobless rate was 1.9 percent.