Singapore private home prices are set to rise at a slower pace in the first quarter of the year, despite continued demand for new homes in the city-state. An index for private residential property rose 0.3% in the first three months of 2026, according to a preliminary estimate released on Wednesday by the country’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. Prices grew 0.6% in the fourth quarter of last year....
Singapore private home prices are set to rise at a slower pace in the first quarter of the year, despite continued demand for new homes in the city-state. An index for private residential property rose 0.3% in the first three months of 2026, according to a preliminary estimate released on Wednesday by the country’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. Prices grew 0.6% in the fourth quarter of last year. A surge in demand, driven by locals looking to invest and upgrade to private homes as well as a growing group of wealthy immigrants, has buoyed the country’s private property market — despite it already being one of the world’s priciest. This comes in spite of growing concern about the economic fallout of the conflict in the Middle East on the trade and import-dependent financial hub. A recent project launch in Tampines, a suburban district in the country’s east, sold over 90% or more than 540 units. Overall, property sales in the last weeks of March are not accounted for in the initial estimate. Authorities have introduced a spate of measures in recent years to dampen a years-long rally in property prices, including a large 60% tax on purchases by foreigners. The bulk of locals live in subsidized government-built housing, where pricing is typically influenced by surges in the private market. Prices for second-hand public housing likely fell by 0.1% in the first quarter, which would mark the first decline in nearly seven years, according to separate estimates released on Wednesday. Final data for the quarter will be released on April 24 .
Tokyo’s Shibuya ward – home to the famous scramble crossing and one of the Japanese capital’s busiest shopping and nightlife districts – is abandoning its long-standing policy of asking people to take their rubbish home. Instead, it is turning to on-the-spot fines as visitor numbers surge and litter piles up. Under a new campaign branded “If you throw trash, you lose cash”, anyone caught dropping ...
Tokyo’s Shibuya ward – home to the famous scramble crossing and one of the Japanese capital’s busiest shopping and nightlife districts – is abandoning its long-standing policy of asking people to take their rubbish home. Instead, it is turning to on-the-spot fines as visitor numbers surge and litter piles up. Under a new campaign branded “If you throw trash, you lose cash”, anyone caught dropping rubbish will be fined 2,000 yen (US$12.50), with enforcement starting on June 1 after a grace...
In ancient China, it was not uncommon to use animal excrement in beauty treatments, a practice exemplified by Manchu Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), who reportedly included bird droppings in her lifelong skincare routine. Cixi, who rose from a low-ranking concubine to power as regent, effectively ruled the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) for nearly 50 years, from 1861 until her death in 1908. While she...
In ancient China, it was not uncommon to use animal excrement in beauty treatments, a practice exemplified by Manchu Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), who reportedly included bird droppings in her lifelong skincare routine. Cixi, who rose from a low-ranking concubine to power as regent, effectively ruled the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) for nearly 50 years, from 1861 until her death in 1908. While she navigated China through major challenges such as the Boxer Rebellion, foreign imperialism, and...
Preserving Cantonese has been challenging due to the dominance of Mandarin, limited learning resources and a lack of a standard written form. With a declining number of young learners, the language faces an uncertain future. Artificial intelligence (AI) – seen by some as an existential threat to humanity – may become the hope for saving the language, and many others, along with the distinct cultur...
Preserving Cantonese has been challenging due to the dominance of Mandarin, limited learning resources and a lack of a standard written form. With a declining number of young learners, the language faces an uncertain future. Artificial intelligence (AI) – seen by some as an existential threat to humanity – may become the hope for saving the language, and many others, along with the distinct cultures they embody. This is the mission of Hong Kong-based deep-tech company Votee AI: to use large...
India’s rupee may weaken to a record 100 per dollar or beyond if the Iran war drags on, with strategists warning that authorities’ efforts to slow its roughly 10% drop over the past year may only provide temporary relief. Analysts at Wells Fargo and Van Eck Associates Corp. say elevated oil prices will accelerate the rupee’s decline by worsening inflation and the current-account deficit. Options m...
India’s rupee may weaken to a record 100 per dollar or beyond if the Iran war drags on, with strategists warning that authorities’ efforts to slow its roughly 10% drop over the past year may only provide temporary relief. Analysts at Wells Fargo and Van Eck Associates Corp. say elevated oil prices will accelerate the rupee’s decline by worsening inflation and the current-account deficit. Options markets echo that view, with pricing suggesting further losses and signaling expectations of a move toward 100. Already one of Asia’s worst performers against the dollar this year, the rupee’s slide has spurred the Reserve Bank of India to take one of its boldest steps in more than a decade, capping banks’ end-of-day positions in the onshore currency market at $100 million. The change forces lenders to shrink their books and limits their ability to run large one-sided bets against the rupee. But the price action on Monday highlighted the limits of such measures: after surging as much as 1.4% at the open on the curbs, the rupee reversed course to hit a fresh low of 95.125 later in the day. The market was closed on Tuesday. “100 per dollar is no longer a tail risk — it is a credible stress scenario if current conditions persist,” said Ahmed Azzam , head of financial market research at broker Equiti Group in Amman. “The latest measures look more like short-term stabilization tools than a structural solution.” Hopes are building that the war could be nearing an end after President Donald Trump said he expects the US to wrap it up within two to three weeks. Still, it’s unclear how firm that timeline is. The US has also recently sent more troops to the region, leaving the door open for escalation if Trump changes his mind. The rupee was already under pressure before the war, weighed down by widening external balances and capital outflows. The oil shock has compounded pressures for the world’s third-largest crude importer, while a potential drop in remittances from Indians in the G...
REalloys appointed former Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Joe Kasper, as chair of its advisory board, placing a senior defense supply chain official at the center of its push to build a U.S.-aligned rare earth supply chain
REalloys appointed former Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Joe Kasper, as chair of its advisory board, placing a senior defense supply chain official at the center of its push to build a U.S.-aligned rare earth supply chain
A fund focusing on smaller Taiwanese firms in the AI supply chain has emerged as a big winner, with a diversified strategy helping it weather the volatility that has rattled the industry over the past year. The Nomura Taiwan High Tech Fund run by George Hsieh has outperformed 99% of its peers and returned 164% in the last 12 months. Despite the war in Iran, it has gained 29% so far this year, vers...
A fund focusing on smaller Taiwanese firms in the AI supply chain has emerged as a big winner, with a diversified strategy helping it weather the volatility that has rattled the industry over the past year. The Nomura Taiwan High Tech Fund run by George Hsieh has outperformed 99% of its peers and returned 164% in the last 12 months. Despite the war in Iran, it has gained 29% so far this year, versus a 9.5% increase for the island’s benchmark stock index. By betting on firms that Hsieh says occupy different stages of the AI supply chain, the fund has mitigated its risk exposure. A fact sheet shows nine of its top ten holdings — ranging from packaging to circuit board specialists — each have a market value below $25 billion. The $1.4 trillion-strong chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. carries the second-biggest weighting in the portfolio. “Some companies hold a near-monopoly status, specifically within niche fields like AI servers or advanced components, allowing them to consistently capture the lion’s share of the market,” Hsieh said in a recent interview, adding that such Taiwanese firms “actually began factoring in these potential risks some time ago.” The resilience of the fund, which had NT$12.6 billion ($393 million) assets as of end-February, shows the benefits of a strategy that avoids heavy concentration on a particular group of industry players. The crowded trade in chipmakers has been especially vulnerable in recent months, battered by concerns over issues from high spending levels to valuations and elevated energy costs following the Iran war. “There’s a severe shortage of capacity” for components like advanced processing nodes and packaging technologies, “because you have to depend on those to achieve these massive multiples” of AI firms, Hsieh said. Vast demand for memory chips from AI data centers in turn spurs growth in other sectors that supply parts to chipmakers, multiplying growth across all layers of the AI supply chain, according to...
In this article .KS11 Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT IBARAKI, JAPAN - JUNE 17: Technicians at work in the clean room of the Fab Equipment at a semiconductor company, Renesas Technology Corp. on June 17, 2004 in Ibaraki, Japan. Renesas is the first company to produce semiconductor products from 300mm wafer in the world. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images) Koichi Kamoshida | Ge...
In this article .KS11 Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT IBARAKI, JAPAN - JUNE 17: Technicians at work in the clean room of the Fab Equipment at a semiconductor company, Renesas Technology Corp. on June 17, 2004 in Ibaraki, Japan. Renesas is the first company to produce semiconductor products from 300mm wafer in the world. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images) Koichi Kamoshida | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images Asia-Pacific markets rebounded Wednesday after statements from U.S. President Donald Trump raised hopes that the Iran war could be coming to an end soon. On Tuesday stateside, Trump said the U.S. could leave Iran in "two or three weeks," adding "We leave because there's no reason for us to do this." U.S. crude futures were up 0.44% at $101.81 a barrel as of 7.40 p.m. ET. South Korea's Kospi led gains in the region, surging almost 5% in early trade, while the small-cap Kosdaq gained 4.13%. Stocks rose as South Korean exports in March surged 48.3% year on year compared to Reuters poll estimates of 44.9%. Japan's Nikkei 225 also saw a 3.51% gain, with the broad based Topix up 3.17%. The Bank of Japan released its Tankan survey for the first quarter of 2026, which measures business sentiment among large Japanese companies. Business optimism among large Japanese manufacturers climbed to 17 from 15, beating expectations of 16 from economists polled by Reuters and reaching its highest level since the fourth quarter of 2021. Large non-manufacturers' business sentiment stood at 36, holding at a multi-decade high as per LSEG data, and same as last quarter's revised 36 . That also defied Reuters poll expectations of 33. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was 1.76% higher, driven by a rise in educational services stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures last traded at 25,191, compared with HSI's last close of 24,788.14. Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes posted their best day since May, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.49%. The ...