US rate-hike fears weaken STI by 16.7 pts

THE Straits Times Index on Tuesday drifted 16.7 points down to 2,750.23 as the entire market recorded a volume of just 966.2 million units worth S$726.7 million - one of the weakest one-day totals this year. The loss here came despite a 40-point rise in the Dow futures and a late-afternoon rebound in Hong Kong, which pushed the Hang Seng Index into the black.

Various reasons were suggested to account for the weakness, among them comments by US Federal Reserve officials on Monday on interest rates: San Francisco's non-voting president John Williams reiterated his view that the Fed would likely raise rates twice or thrice this year, followed by another three to four times in 2017; St Louis president Jam…