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🦎 IGGY MORNING BRIEF, 17 AUGUST 2026

☕ Good morning, Iguanas. SGX opens at 9 am SGT. Milestone week done, live data due today.

OVERNIGHT US SUMMARY

Wall Street pulled back Friday. Dow −0.20% to 53,732.41. S&P 500 −0.17% to 7,785.76. Nasdaq −0.28% to 26,729.16. Weaker retail sales and softer consumer sentiment pointed to cooling demand. Crude oil ticked higher on US naval enforcement around Gulf shipping routes, reviving inflation worries. VIX eased to 14.46. For SGX: a pause, not a reversal.

SGX PRE-OPEN PULSE

USD/SGD: 1.2778. Brent: ~US$87.20/bbl.

SINGAPORE NEWS ON IGGY'S RADAR

📈 STI notches 10th straight weekly gain, closing at 5,743.59

Up 0.79% on a holiday-shortened week; YTD now +23.62%, after touching an all-time intraday high of 5,774.21. Ten consecutive weekly gains is a long run. Implication: caution, not excitement. This is when yield discipline matters most.

🏦 Brokerages update bank target prices after Q2

RHB raised DBS to S$81.20; UOB Kay Hian set OCBC at S$33.35; RHB upgraded UOB to Buy at S$46.60. All three banks earned target upgrades despite NIM compression, offset by wealth and fee income. Key takeaway: bank earnings are now a fee/wealth story, not purely a rate story.

📊 July NODX data due today at 8.30 am

Releases before the open. Follows Enterprise Singapore's FY export growth forecast upgrade to 14–16%. Today's print is the first real test of whether that upgraded outlook holds in the monthly data.

IGGY'S GAME PLAN

Ten weeks of gains and near-record highs mean more caution on chasing yield, not less. A rising tide lifts prices faster than distributions. Bank upgrades confirm: this is a fee and wealth story now. NODX at 8.30 am is the one hard data point that could move markets.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.