Outlook for the week

Key economic releases for the week

• Mon, 1 Mar: Earnings: LIPPO MALLS INDO RETAIL TRUST – Aft Mkt, US: Markit US Manufacturing PMI (10:45PM)
• Tue, 2 Mar: SG: Purchasing Managers Index (9:00PM)
• Wed, 3 Mar: CH: Caixin China PMI Composite (9:45AM)
• Thu, 4 Mar: US: U.S. Federal Reserve Releases Beige Book (3:00AM), US: Nonfarm Productivity (9:30PM)
• Fri, 5 Mar: SG: Retail Sales YoY (1:00PM)

Last Week Summary

Market turmoil sweeping across equity and debt markets overnight puts a dent in the budding optimism surrounding economic recovery. US equity indexes tumbled as the S&P and Nasdaq fell 2.5% and 3.6% overnight. A lacklustre US treasury auction overnight also fuelled the sharp steepening of the yield curve, with 10yr yields surging as high as 23bps last night to 1.60%.

• The Asia primary markets pipeline reopened this week after the Lunar New Year break. Chinese and Indian issuers managed to price deals right before market selloff on Thursday. Investor participation indicators point to weaker tone as book coverage(4.2x) and average number of accounts(85.2 accts) this week are significantly lower as compared to YTD numbers(5.8x & 118.9 accts respectively).
• Olam International has short-listed six rival exchanges including the Singapore Exchange, as a potential venue of choice for the mega listing of its giant food ingredients unit sometime in the second quarter of next year, said the firm’s head honcho, as part of its ongoing business reorganisation.

New issue pipeline remains muted with the heightened market volatility with 1 new mandate outstanding from the ones announced over the fortnight.