SG Morning Highlights | Singapore GDP grew 3.8% in 2022; further weakness ahead amid global headwinds

Advancers / Decliners is 113 to 36, with 90.73 million securities worth S$147.53 million changing hands.

Singapore's economy expanded 3.8 per cent year on year in 2022, with growth in the services sector helping to offset sluggish performance in the manufacturing sector, according to advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Tuesday (Jan 3).

This makes last year's gross domestic product (GDP) slightly better than the official forecast of "around 3.5 per cent" that MTI had narrowed to in November last year.

Fourth quarter GDP came in at 2.2 per cent year on year, slower than the revised 4.2 per cent seen in Q3.

After weathering a dire 2022, many global hedge fund managers are preparing for persistent inflation this year and seeking exposure to commodities and bonds that perform well in such an environment.

Most of the 10 global asset and hedge fund managers surveyed by Reuters said that commodities were undervalued, and should thrive in 2023 as global inflation stays elevated.

Their other top picks included inflation-linked bonds to shield against price rises and selective exposure to corporate credit, as higher interest rates restore some differentiation in company bond spreads.

US job openings fell less than expected in November as the labour market remains tight, which could see the Federal Reserve boosting interest rates to a higher level than currently anticipated to tame inflation.

There was, however, encouraging news in the inflation fight, with a survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Wednesday (Jan 4) showing its measure of prices paid by manufacturers for inputs diving in December to the lowest level since February 2016, discounting the plunge early in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Fed is engaged in its fastest interest rate-hiking cycle since the 1980s as tries to dampen demand, including for labour, in order to quell inflation. Last month, the US central bank projected interest rates could rise to a peak of 5.1 per cent. But persistent labour market tightness has led economists to expect that borrowing costs will increase to a much higher level and remain there for while, which could undercut economic growth.

US central bankers do not expect it will be "appropriate" to start cutting interest rates this year with inflation remaining high, according to minutes of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting released Wednesday (Jan 4).

The Fed has waged an all-out campaign to cool the world's biggest economy as inflation surged to a 40-year high last year, raising the benchmark lending rate seven times to ease demand.

This brought the rate to a range between 4.25 and 4.50 per cent after the Fed's December meeting, the highest level since 2007.

Barred by Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo), UOBKH is not allowed to undertake new mandates to act as an issue manager or full sponsor for initial public offering (IPO) and reverse takeover (RTO) submissions on the local bourse.

SGX RegCo meted out the ban - announced on Dec 27 - after having deliberated the actions taken against the brokerage firm by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The project is scheduled for completion in 2025. When completed, it will be deployed to an offshore wind site in the Asia-Pacific region, Keppel said on Thursday (Jan 5).

A substation is typically a type of electrical infrastructure used to distribute power from the source of generation – for instance, an offshore wind site – to the main distribution network.