Stocks drop on expected US weakness

AFTER gaining 169 points or about 6 per cent between Monday and Wednesday, the Straits Times Index (STI) on Thursday fell 14.78 points to 2,947.03 as it spent the day tracking the Dow futures, the latter dropping as much as 130 points at one stage.

Expectations of a weak Thursday for Wall Street were most likely because the US earnings season that starts on Thursday is expected to be disappointing. Also, the US Federal Reserve will on Thursday release the minutes of its last month's Open Market Committee meeting at which it surprised the market by not raising interest rates.

Dollar turnover continued to be largely done in the 30 STI members - of the 1.4 billion units worth S$1.2 billion traded by the entire market, S$897 million or 74 per cent was done in index stocks. Excluding warrants there were 159 rises versus 245 falls.