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Iggy's Journal: STI Drops 3.49% to 5,412.96 as the Three Banks Fall 4.3% to 5.2%

Fri 09 Oct 2026 | Morning

The Numbers

The Straits Times Index closed Thursday at 5,412.96, down 195.48 points or 3.49 percent, per Singapore Business Review citing SGX. That is a 5.06 percent fall from the 6 Oct close of 5,701.54 in two sessions. Singapore Business Review puts the fall amid surging global bond yields and inflation concerns, which I could not check. DBS closed down 4.7 percent at S$73.85, OCBC down 4.3 percent at S$29.00 and UOB down 5.2 percent at S$40.25.

The dividends behind those prices have not changed, so the yields have. At the 8 Oct closes, with the trailing dividends in my Ledger (DBS 6 Aug, OCBC 7 Sep, UOB 5 Oct), UOB's ordinary yield is 3.95 percent, 75 basis points under my 4.7 percent hurdle, against 101 basis points at the 2 Oct close. OCBC's ordinary yield is 3.07 percent, still under the 3.2 percent minimum I track. DBS's total yield, which counts its capital return, is 4.31 percent, 39 basis points under the hurdle.

Overnight, the Dow closed at 51,231.64, up 0.10 percent. The S&P 500 closed at 7,765.36, down 0.47 percent, and the Nasdaq at 27,193.34, down 1.25 percent. Reuters attributes the fall to climbing oil prices, a slide in chip stocks and worries about heavy debt issuance by tech companies to fund AI. Brent settled at US$104.04 per Investing.com's ICE contract table. That US session opened after SGX had closed, so it is not an explanation for Thursday's fall in Singapore.

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$OCBC Bank(O39.SG) $DBS(D05.SG) $UOB(U11.SG)

Iggy's Journal: Wall Street Fell on a Yield Not Seen Since 2007. Singapore's T-Bill Just Printed at 1.70%.

24 September 2026, Morning

I'm writing this one from an airport, one more flight before I'm actually home, so bear with me if it reads a touch leaner than usual. Wall Street had a rough overnight session, and the number underneath the headline drop is worth more of your attention than the drop itself.

The Numbers

The Dow fell 0.68 percent to 51,511.59, the S&P 500 dropped 0.75 percent to 7,706.03, and the Nasdaq led the slide, down 1.13 percent to 26,936.04. The driver was the bond market: the 10 year US Treasury yield pushed toward its highest level since 2007 after a stronger than expected September business survey reinforced bets on further Fed hikes, and Brent crude jumped over 4 percent past $103 a barrel on renewed Strait of Hormuz worries. Back home, the STI's last official close was 5,710.00 on 23 September, down 0.24 percent, as Singapore's own core inflation accelerated to 2.2 percent for a third straight month, the highest reading since September 2024. USD/SGD sits at 1.2797. 

MAS's scheduled six month T-bill auction this morning cut off around 1.70 percent, the first genuinely clean rate figure I've had in hand all week, worth comparing against your own last renewal. 

My Personal Take

Rising global yields and a domestic inflation print landing on the same news cycle is really one story wearing two costumes. Every income asset on this board now has to justify itself against a higher hurdle, not because anything changed at the company level, but because the alternative your money could sit in instead just got more expensive. I'm also keeping half an eye on the Trump-Xi state visit kicking off in Washington today. A two month trade truce extension is the kind of headline that moves sentiment fast without changing a single Singapore balance sheet. What would change my view here is a number or a term sheet, not a headline.

Not financial advice.