The Singapore stock market has finished higher now in seven straight sessions, climbing more than 60 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Straits Times Index finished just above the 3,170-point plateau, although now analysts are forecasting heavy losses for the market when it opens on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests broadly based consolidation following poor economic data from the United States and lingering debt concerns from Greece. Financials are expected to see heavy pressure, along with oil companies and properties. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply lower, and the Asian markets also figure to head south.
The STI finished modestly higher again on Wednesday following gains from the financials, airlines and telecoms.
For the day, the index added 12.94 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 3,172.87 after trading between 3,157.20 and 3,181.53. Volume was 949 million shares worth 1.22 billion Singapore dollars. There were 232 decliners and 204 gainers.
Among the actives, Indofood Agri, CapitaLand, DBS Group, ST Engineering, Singapore Airlines and SingTel all finished higher, while Golden Agri and City Developments were unchanged and Artivision Tech and Keppel Land ended lower.
The lead from Wall Street is heavily negative as stocks saw substantial weakness on Wednesday, spurred by another disappointing batch of economic data that raised concerns about the outlook for the U.S. economy.
Stocks moved lower following the release of a report from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showing much weaker than expected private sector job growth in the month of May. ADP said that private sector employment increased by 38,000 jobs in May, well below economist estimates for an increase of about 170,000 jobs. The report added to concerns about the strength of the labor market and led economists to cut their estimates for the Labor Department's monthly jobs report on Friday.
Selling pressure intensified following the release of a separate report from the Institute for Supply Management showing a substantial slowdown in the pace of growth in the manufacturing sector in May. The ISM said its index of activity in the manufacturing sector fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April, although a reading above 50 indicates continued growth in the sector. Economists had been expecting a reading of 57.5. The drop pulled the index down to its lowest level since September of 2009.
The weakness in the markets was also partly due to news of major automakers reporting weak U.S. vehicle sales for the month of May. General Motors (GM) reported a 1.2 percent drop in May sales, while Toyota said its U.S. sales plummeted by 33.4 percent.
Additionally, Moody's Investors Service revealed that it has downgraded Greece's local and foreign currency bond ratings to Caa1 from B1 and assigned a negative outlook to the ratings.
The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the day near their lows for the session. The Dow plunged 279.65 points or 2.2 percent to 12,290.14, the NASDAQ dropped 66.11 points or 2.3 percent to 2,769.19 and the S&P 500 plummeted 30.65 points or 2.3 percent to 1,314.55. The sharp losses on the day pulled both the Dow and the S&P 500 down to their lowest closing levels in well over a month.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.