Bank of Singapore

Bank of Singapore Unplugged, a forum where our specialists will be answering tomorrow’s investment questions today. For many years now, global investors have been focusing on US, Europe and China for opportunities, and understandably so, given the depth of these markets and attractive growth prospects across various sectors in those regions. However, there appears to be significant attention on Ja...

The recent market outlook and news flow have shown that bond yields continue to stay elevated on surprisingly resilient economic data, and as central banks remain hawkish. Meanwhile, investors are still digesting the impact of Fitch’s recent downgrade on US government’s rating. Now that the signs of inflation are easing towards more normal levels, central banks are finding themselves with more roo...

The 2H 2023 investment outlook by Bank of Singapore specialists,  Jean Chia , Chief Investment Officer,  Eli Lee , Head of Investment Strategy and  Mansoor Mohi-uddin , Chief Economist.

In this episode, we hear from Ho Kwon Ping , global entrepreneur and opening keynote speaker at Bank of Singapore's 2023 Mid Year Outlook, on his perspectives on Asia, the game changer. Featuring: Ho Kwon Ping , Founder & Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, Laguna Resorts & Hotels and Thai Wah Public Company Moderated by Yvonne Chan , Former CNA Anchor & Media Trainer

Bank of Singapore presents "Challenging Convention" - an exclusive conversation with Marc Rowan , Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Apollo Global Management, Inc., hosted by Jean Chia , Chief Investment Officer at Bank of Singapore.  Hear from Marc as he shares about leading one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers, the fundamental changes that are reshaping markets...

Bank of Singapore Unplugged, a forum where our specialists will be answering tomorrow’s investment questions today. In our first episode, our specialists explore Asia – tune in to discover more about the key themes driving Asia’s resurgence, and about Asia’s role as an innovation hub for global enterprises, and how investors can position themselves to best capture the opportunities out there. Feat...

Although real GDP growth for the region will decelerate this year, high average oil prices in 2023 should provide significant credit support to major oil producers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – reinforcing our favourable view of IG-rated sovereigns from the region. Tune into our latest podcast with  David Makoni , senior fixed income analyst at Bank of Singapore, as he summaris...

The road to a weaker US dollar will not be smooth. Our medium-term forecast remains USD bearish, as we expect the US recession to unfold by early next year, forcing the Fed to turn dovish. Tune in to our latest podcast with our Bank of Singapore currency and commodities strategist,  Sim Moh Siong , as he shares the latest outlook for the US dollar, and what investors can expect over the next few m...

While the property sector has seen robust performance in recent years given record high prices amid strong demand and supply constraints caused by the pandemic, we are now seeing headwinds from a higher interest rate environment. The collapse of some banks in the US and Europe have also led to fears of contagion risks and tightening credit conditions. Tune in to our special edition podcast with ou...

In our latest podcast,  Eli Lee , Bank of Singapore’s Head of Investment Strategy, shares the latest outlook for the US economy and what lies ahead for investors: X-date when US Treasury runs out of cash could potentially be in June-July 2023; earlier than expected. Bank of Singapore’s base case is congressional brinksmanship and a last-minute agreement; risk of a US debt default is unlikely. We c...

Different risk assets are currently discounting different outlooks for the US economy, for the second half of 2023. The rates market is expecting aggressive rate cuts, which point to a more dramatic slowdown in growth, while the US equity market and corporate earnings outlook seem to retain the expectations of an earnings rebound in the second half and a moderate slowdown for 2023 as a whole. So,...

Everything seems to be out of sync with historical norms. Uncertainties exist everywhere in global markets, and with the latest addition of higher oil prices, it looks like the congregation of multiple market variables all at once - high interest rates, elevated inflation, higher oil prices, banking crisis, corporate earnings cuts… Could this be the perfect storm, and how should investors tread ah...

Over recent months, investors would have seen various news headlines about the US Treasury reaching its debt limit, and the attendant concerns for the economy and markets. As this debt limit has been reached in January, the US Treasury has now begun the usage of extraordinary measures, which most expect to only last till sometime in the second half of this year before a default occurs. This is cer...

This week, all eyes will be on America’s payrolls report for February due on Friday. January’s jobs report was also very strong, as data showed the US unemployment rate fell to a 53-year low of 3.4%. America’s labour market thus remains very tight, fuelling wage growth and keeping inflation much higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. This makes February’s payrolls data on Friday crucial. If...

Excerpt: China’s re-opening after three years of strict Covid-19 lockdowns and isolation from the rest of the world will be one of the most important developments for investors in 2023. For a start, China will be the only major economy with faster year-on-year (YoY) growth this year. We upgraded our 2023 GDP forecast for China to 5.2%, a rebound from last year’s 3% growth. In contrast, global grow...

Last month, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) ended in Montreal with a landmark agreement to guide global action on nature through to 2030. Chaired by China and hosted by Canada, COP15 resulted in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework . One of the key targets of the agreement is the “30 by 30 deal”, which seeks to ensure the effective conservation and...

Professor Kishore Mahbubani shares his perspectives for the global and Asian economies going into 2023, discussing key issues and dominant macro trends which could impact investors in the year ahead. Speaker: Professor Kishore Mahbubani Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Geopolitical risk was a major driver of financial markets in 2022. Soaring inflation driven by conflict in Ukraine prompted major central banks including the Federal Reserve to embark on a historic string of rate hikes - at their fastest pace since the 1980s. How will geopolitics play out in 2023 and what surprises will it bring? In this dialogue session, Professor Kishore Mahbubani and Professor...

2023 will be a year of two halves. In the first phase, risk assets are likely to experience a volatile bottoming process, followed by a broad recovery in the second phase as the world moves past peak Federal Reserve hawkishness. We also keep a watchful eye on the interest rate environment, the US dollar and China, an outlier whose growth outlook has turned incrementally positive. As the interplay...

As volatility and uncertainty persist into 2023, the ability to diversify through access to alternatives investments will become increasing valuable for portfolios. In this discussion, our expert panel of alternatives-focused, multi-asset strategists explore the art of building diversified portfolios and deploying capital into this key segment in order to generate alpha amidst these challenging in...

In this episode, we hear from former professional athlete turned investor, Chad Hutchinson. Chad played professionally in both American football and baseball, first as a Major League Baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, before becoming a National Football League quarterback and playing for the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears. Private equity is now his third sport. This rare two-sport sta...

This week bore witness to the biggest daily gain of the Yen against the US dollar in the 21st century. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) has widened the Yield Curve Control’s (YCC) 10yr trading band from +/-25bp to +/-50bp while keeping its target at 0% and increasing Japanese Government Bond (JGB) purchases. This came as a shock for investors and market consensus, as many expected changes to the YCC only a...

October’s US inflation data has raised hopes that the end is finally in sight for this year’s rapid Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. Financial markets rallied strongly after October’s inflation data was released. However, the Fed remains hawkish. In this podcast episode, Mansoor Mohi-uddin , our Chief Economist, shares the latest outlook and reviews why investors should still be cautious about...

Hong Kong and China equity markets have been severely punished after the 20th Party Congress, with the Hang Seng Index on last Monday alone, which went down over 6% – the sharpest single day plunge since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Caution has come back onto the radar. In this podcast episode, Eli Lee , our Head of Investment Strategy at Bank of Singapore, shares the latest outlook on Hong...

Historically, credit spreads have always been a good leading indicator of future market performance, and since the end of September, global credit spreads have been tightening substantially. In Emerging Markets Credit, High Yield spreads have tightened 35 basis points and Investment Grade has come in 5 basis points. In U.S Credit the trend has been even stronger with High Yield 58 basis points tig...