3 hours ago
European stocks open lower
European markets opened this week on a negative note after their Asia-Pacific counterparts fell, as investors look ahead to a week of central bank decisions.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index opened 0.2% lower, with sectors spread across positive and negative territory. Mining stocks led modest gains, up 0.3%, while household goods were down 0.5% at the start of trading.
—Hannah Ward Glenton
7 hours ago
Evergrande shares plunge more than 20% after asset management employees were arrested
Shares in struggling Chinese real estate developer Evergrande plunged as much as 22.6% on Monday after police arrested some employees of the group’s asset management division over the weekend.
Portal reported that police in the southern city of Shenzhen said in a statement that “public security organs had taken criminal enforcement action against Du and other suspected criminals at Evergrande Financial Wealth Management Co.”
It is not clear who Du is, although Portal said he was identified by employees in 2021 as the general manager and legal representative of Evergrande’s asset management division.
Evergrande shares rebounded later in the session, gaining 1.61% compared to Friday’s close.
9 hours ago
SoftBank Expects OpenAI to Settle After Arm IPO: FT
Japanese investment holding SoftBank is reportedly planning to invest “tens of billions” in artificial intelligence, according to the Financial Times.
Citing “two familiar people [SoftBank founder Masayoshi] Son’s Thinking,” the FT reported that the company was considering several options, including investing in or entering into a “broad strategic partnership” with Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
SoftBank could also invest in competitors, the report added. FT also said SoftBank had made a preliminary approach to buying UK-based AI chip maker Graphcore.
SoftBank told the FT it would not comment on the rumors, and Graphcore denied to the FT that it had received an offer from SoftBank.
—Lim Hui Jie
9 hours ago
Singapore trade falls more than expected in August; The eleventh consecutive month of decline
Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports fell for the 11th straight month, falling 20.1% year-on-year.
The decline was much larger than the 15.8% drop forecast by economists polled by Portal, but slightly smaller than the 20.3% decline recorded in July.
Total trade in Singapore fell 15.2% year-on-year to 100 billion Singapore dollars ($73.4 billion) in August, after falling 20.9% in the previous month.
Both imports and exports fell by 15.6% and 14.7% year-on-year, respectively.
—Lim Hui Jie
12 hours ago
The technology sector has had a losing week
The technology sector was the worst-hit group of the S&P 500 in the week ending September 15. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund has lost 2.2% for the week so far.
Oracle led the sector’s losses, falling nearly 10% this week after missing revenue expectations in its fiscal first quarter. Chipmaker KLA Corporation fell 8.7%, while Monolithic Power Systems also fell more than 7%.
Meanwhile, the utilities sector posted the biggest weekly gains, with the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund gaining 2.8%.
– Hakyung Kim
12 hours ago
Stock futures open flat
US stock futures were on an upward trend on Sunday evening.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 17 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.03% and 0.02%, respectively.
– Hakyung Kim