Trade spat, emerging markets to take centrestage

HOW low can the market(s) go? This may be the central question over this week as politics takes centrestage and could add more fuel to US-China trade war woes amid an emerging market meltdown that may display little sign of abating ahead of an expected US rate hike later this month.

The Singapore equity market, which spent much of recent weeks nervously monitoring the escalating global trade tension between Washington and its key trading partners, is unlikely to let up on that fear factor.

"The near-term outlook remains a negative one for emerging markets that could keep further downsides in view. How much further the market may fall could be the biggest question this week as we wait out political drivers," said Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore.