STI down 0.1% as investor caution reigns

IT was not a start to March that investors were hoping for on Thursday, as a sea of red engulfed the local bourse and regional markets following a rough tumble on Wall Street overnight amid uncertainty over the pace of rate hikes in the US.

Weak macro data out of the world's largest economy and a key risk event later in the day - Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's testimony at the Senate Banking Committee - weighed on Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index, which slipped 4.09 points or 0.12 per cent to finish at 3,513.85.

"US data was not a bed or roses," said OCBC Investment Research, referring to the release of the US fourth-quarter GDP that grew at 2.5 per cent instead of the previously reported 2.6 per cent and a decline in January's pending home sales.