OTHER than Hong Kong, many major market indices appear to be struggling with particular numerical barriers, sometimes rather naively labelled "key psychological levels''.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was unable to put any meaningful upside daylight between itself and the 18,000 mark. Every time the Dow has crossed the mark this year, it promptly slipped back to fall below it. As for the S&P 500, 2,100 appears to be the barrier to beat. That both levels were breached on Friday means very little, because they could just as easily be lost this week.

Similarly, the Straits Times Index can't seem to pierce 3,500 convincingly - though thanks to a blatant month-ending push in the final seconds on Thursday, the index hit 3,487, which was close to striking distance of the mark.