Shedding its stuffy image: Goldman Sachs is attempting to attract more millennials by reaching them where most if not all young people hang out virutally now, on Snapchat.
MarketWrap: Wall Street closed slightly lower on Monday, with gains in materials and banks countered by declines in consumer staples shares, as investors girded for the start of an earnings season expected to be gloomy. - Reuters
The DJIA fell 20.55 points, or 0.12%, to 17,556.41, the S&P 500 lost 5.61 points, or 0.27%, to 2,041.99 and the Nasdaq dropped 17.29 points, or 0.36%, to 4,833.40.
Forex summary
*The ringgit rises 0.14% to 3.8835 per US$
*Flat at 4.4302 per euro
*Down 0.15% to 5.5292 to the pound sterling
*Flat at 2.8900 per Singapore dollar
*0.45% lower to 2.9518 per Aussie
*Up 0.36% to 3.5898 per 100 yen
Energy
Brent crude prices touched a four-month high on Monday in a rally fueled by strong markets across commodities, ahead of a meeting of oil producers in Doha next Sunday aimed at freezing current output levels. After hitting the highest level since Dec 7 early in the day, Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, settled up 89 cents, or 2.12% at US$42.83 a barrel. US crude futures settled up 64 cents, or 1.6%, at US$40.36 a barrel. - Reuters
Top foreign stories
Goldman Sachs to pay US$5b in mortgage bond pact: Goldman Sachs Group Inc has agreed to pay US$5.06 billion to settle claims that it misled mortgage bond investors during the financial crisis, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. The settlement, which Goldman disclosed in January, stems from the firm's conduct in packaging, securitisation, marketing and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007, the Justice Department said. - Reuters
Dell's SecureWorks valued at US$1.4b in year's first tech IPO: Dell Inc's cyber security unit, SecureWorks Corp, could be valued at up to US$1.42 billion in its initial public offering, the first major US listing of a technology company this year. SecureWorks said on Monday its offering was expected to be priced at US$15.50-US$17.50 per Class A share, raising as much as US$157.5 million. - Reuters
Top local stories
CLIQ seeks judicial reviewt: In an unprecedented move, the promoters of special-purpose acquisition company CLIQ Energy Bhd are seeking a legal opinion on a decision by the Securities Commission (SC) that sought more information on the proposed asset that it was acquiring. Best Oracle Sdn Bhd said in an announcement on Monday it had applied for a Judicial Review of the SC’s decision on Jan 7 to further query the status of the 2P reserves estimates of the qualifying asset that CLIQ had proposed to acquire. - StarBiz
Three new shareholders emerge in Langkah Bahagia: Three new shareholders - Ong Beng Seng, Ong Tiong Sin and Seow Lun Hoo - have emerged in Langkah Bahagia Sdn Bhd, which owns a substantial stake through Vertical Theme Sdn Bhd in Alliance Financial Group Bhd, the country’s smallest banking group by assets. - StarBiz
LBS extends unconditional offer to ML Global: Property developer LBS Bina Group Bhd
is extending an unconditiondal mandatory general offer (MGO) to acquire all the remaining shares and warrants it does not own in listed subsidiary ML Global Bhd (MGB) for 56 sen and six sen per share, respectively. The MGO was triggered by LBS’ recent acquisition of an 18.97% equity interest for RM9.5mil. - StarBiz
1MdB: Aabar BVI is owned by IPIC and Aabar: 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) claims that as per its record, Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (Aabar BVI) is jointly owned by International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and Aabar Investments PJS (Aabar). - Bernama
World Bank downgrades Malaysia’s growth forecast: The World Bank has downgraded Malaysia’s growth forecast this year by 0.3 percentage point to 4.4%. - StarBiz
Moody's poll: Malaysia's GDP to slow: A poll that Moody’s Investors Service conducted shows that more than half, or 58%, of the respondents believe that Malaysia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth will slow to between 4% and 4.5% in 2016 from 5% in 2015. - StarBiz
Malaysia to sell up to US$1.5bil of Islamic bonds: Malaysia plans to sell as much as US$1.5bil of global Islamic bonds, less than a month after Indonesia's sukuk attracted bids for more than three times the amount offered. The marketing of the notes started on Monday and they will likely have maturities of 10 and 30 years, sources said. - Bloomberg
BHP clinches Pan Borneo Highway job: Borneo Highway PDP Sdn Bhd (BHP), which is 40% owned by a MMC Corp-UEM Group joint-venture entity, has been named as the project delivery partner for the first phase of the Pan Borneo Highway’s Sabah construction, which is expected to cost RM13bil. - StarBiz
RM40b investment target: Malaysia is targeting to attract RM40bil worth of investments in the manufacturing and services sectors this year, says Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) chief executive officer Datuk Azman Mahmud. - StarBiz
Malaysia’s March palm oil stocks hit one-year low: Malaysian palm oil inventories in March fell below two million tonnes for the first time in a year as buyers rushed to stock up the tropical oil before a tax on exports kicked in, offsetting a seasonal jump in output. - Reuters
QL Resources plans to open 300 FamilyMart outlets within five years: QL Resources Bhd is diversifying into the convenience store business by becoming Malaysia’s master franchisee for the world’s second-largest convenience store chain FamilyMart Co Ltd. The company plans to open 300 outlets within five years, with the first to be operational by end-2016. - Edge FD
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