The Singapore stock market on Wednesday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had gathered almost 50 points or 1.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now sits just above the 3,160-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates, especially among the tech shares. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The STI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the financial shares and the industrial issues.
For the day, the index sank 17.69 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 3,163.44 after trading between 3,154.96 and 3,196.60. Volume was 1.3 billion shares worth 1.19 billion Singapore dollars. There were 305 decliners and 203 gainers.
Among the actives, Ascendas REIT slid 0.34 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust plummeted 1.91 percent, City Developments was down 0.29 percent, Comfort DelGro dropped 0.71 percent, Dairy Farm International climbed 0.68 percent, DBS Group tanked 1.39 percent, Genting Singapore advanced 0.64 percent, Keppel Corp tumbled 1.35 percent, Mapletree Commercial Trust jumped 1.10 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust lost 0.54 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation declined 1.03 percent, SATS skidded 0.76 percent, SembCorp Industries plunged 1.46 percent, Singapore Airlines shed 0.59 percent, Singapore Exchange spiked 1.71 percent, Singapore Press Holdings rose 0.43 percent, Singapore Technologies Engineering fell 0.53 percent, SingTel retreated 0.85 percent, Thai Beverage surged 2.27 percent, United Overseas Bank eased 0.22 percent, Wilmar International added 0.47 percent and Yangzijiang Shipbuilding sank 0.74 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened flat on Wednesday and hugged the unchanged line for most of the session before plummeting after the release of the FOMC minutes.
The Dow tumbled 392.54 points or 1.07 percent to finish at 36,407.54, while the NASDAQ plummeted 522.54 points or 3.34 percent to close at 15,100.17 and the S&P 500 tanked 92.96 points or 1.94 percent to end at 4,700.58.
The sell-off on Wall Street came as the Fed minutes seemed to have a more hawkish tone, raising concerns the central bank will be more aggressive than anticipated.
According to the minutes of the December 14-15 meeting, members of the Fed are preparing to begin reducing the size of the central bank's approximately $8.8 trillion balance sheet soon after raising interest rates.
Meanwhile, traders have largely shrugged off a report from payroll processor ADP showing much stronger than expected private sector job growth in the month of December.
Crude oil prices showed a notable advance Wednesday on optimism the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will not significantly impact global demand. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for February delivery jumped $0.86 or 1.1 percent to $77.85 a barrel.