$SINGAPORE AIRLINES LTD(C6L.SI)$ Singapore Airlines (SIA) reported a robust set of numbers for its June operating results, thanks to the high demand for air travel amid the mid-year holidays, coupled with the start of the summer travel season. This was across every route region except East Asia, where travel restrictions continue to be in place for certain points.The group carried a total of about 1.9 million passengers during the month, up 13.7% from the previous month. Group passenger capacity (measured in available seat-kilometres) was up by 3 percentage points (ppt) than the month before and 36% higher compared to a year ago, thereby reaching 64% of pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels.The group passenger load factor (PLF) reached a new pandemic-hig

$Netflix(NFLX)$ Netflix rekindles analyst interest after 60% wipeoutAnalysts increasingly are betting that Netflix Inc.’s move into advertising can help turn around the performance of one of the weakest stocks of 2022.At least three firms on Wall Street have upgraded the streaming-video company’s shares this month, citing its planned introduction this year of an ad-supported subscriber tier.Netflix shares have plunged 60% in 2022, making it the fourth-worst performer in the Nasdaq 100 Index. The bulk of the losses followed a pair of catastrophic earnings reports, including the first quarter since 2011 in which its user base shrank. The stock fell 0.4% on Tuesday.The results raised questions about its ability to hold onto pandemic-era gains, an iss

$KEPPEL DC REIT(AJBU.SI)$$MAPLETREE INDUSTRIAL TRUST(ME8U.SI)$ Industrial REITs have been a bastion of stability throughout the pandemic.Of course, the important attribute that many of them have is strong tenants within their portfolio.This fact has enabled many industrial REITs to pay out a dependable and consistent flow of dividends through good times and bad.Within the industrial REIT space, it may be tough to choose between two REITs that seem to be equally good. Keppel DC and $MAPLETREE INDUSTRIAL TRUST(ME8U.SI)$ Both REITs have strong sponsors and diversified portfolios with long track records.$KEPPEL DC REIT(AJBU.SI)$ owns 21 data centres across nine countries with assets under mana

$SATS LTD.(S58.SI)$David Iben put it well when he said, 'Volatility is not a risk we care about. What we care about is avoiding the permanent loss of capital.' So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. Importantly, $SATS LTD.(S58.SI)$ does carry debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders? [smile] [smile] [smile] What Risk Does Debt Bring?Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. However, a more frequent (but

$COMFORTDELGRO CORPORATION LTD(C52.SI)$ RHB Group Research analyst Shekhar Jaiswal is keeping his “buy” recommendation on CDG as he sees the transport operator being “well-placed” to maintain its earnings recovery over the next few quarters.The earnings recovery comes as CDG’s Singapore units gradually return to normalcy following the negative impact that stemmed from the Covid-19 pandemic.In addition, the one-off government support of $150 for taxi hirers to offset higher fuel prices, coupled with the support measures from CDG itself, should enable the group to sustain a gradual recovery in taxi earnings, as it should strengthen the sustainability of taxi hirers’ earnings, the analyst says.The $150 relief will go to eligible taxi main hirers an

$SINGAPORE POST LIMITED(S08.SI)$ In its latest 1QFY2022 ended June operational update, SINGAPORE POST announced that its domestic post and parcel segment continued to trade in challenging conditions. Traditional letter mail volumes declined further, while costs rose significantly, particularly in fuel, labour and utilities. Additionally, a major eCommerce customer has insourced part of its own logistics, resulting in lower volumes.The international post & parcel business continued to face significant headwinds from further supply chain disruptions, and there was also a knock-on impact from the ongoing lockdowns in cities in China due to the Covid-19 situation. These have adversely impacted conveyance costs for our supply chains originating f

$DBS GROUP HOLDINGS LTD(D05.SI)$$UNITED OVERSEAS BANK LIMITED(U11.SI)$ The local banks announced their 1QFY2022 business updates. Rising interest rates took centrestage - in terms of their impact on net interest income, on their customers and credit costs, and on banks’ own portfolios which comprise high quality liquid assets (HQLA).In a nutshell, DBS Group Holdings’ 1QFY2022 net profit of $1.8 billion, up 30% q-o-q but down 10% y-o-y, just a tad outside the consensus forecast of $1.88 billion on Bloomberg; Oversea Chinese Banking Corp’s (OCBC) net profit - up 39% q-o-q but down 10% y-o-y - of $1.36 billion was comfortably above the $1.2 billion consensus forecast on Bloomberg. Uni

$KEPPEL CORPORATION LIMITED(BN4.SI)$ Keppel Corp has won a US$2.9 billion ($4.97 billion) contract from Petrobras to build a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned oil company, is a longtime customer of Keppel Corp,The FPSO, named P-80, is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2026. It is the second FPSO that Keppel will be building for Petrobras for the Buzios field in Brazil. An earlier contract to build another FPSO, the P-78, is being executed.P-80 is structured on progressive milestone payments and will be cash-flow neutral during its execution lifecycle.When completed, the P-80 will be one of the largest floating production units in the world with a production capacity of 225,000 b

$SINGAPORE AIRLINES LTD(C6L.SI)$ CGS-CIMB Research analyst Raymond Yap has kept a “hold” rating on Singapore Airlines (SIA) as he sees the airline’s high airfares, elevated market share and strong demand to be offset by the risks of high oil prices.In addition, Yap has lowered his target price of $5.75 from $5.92 previously, after cutting his earnings per share (EPS) estimates for the FY2023 to FY2024 ending March and applying a lower FY2023 P/BV of 0.95x, which is SIA’s mean since 2011.The lowered EPS estimates were due to the analyst’s higher price assumptions for spot jet fuel, from US$120 ($167.15) per barrel to US$135 a barrel for the FY2023, and from US$95 per barrel to US$110 per barrel for the FY2024.“We have also assumed higher yields t

$Apple(AAPL)$store workers in New York City's Grand Central Terminal working toward unionizing have come up with some concrete demands. [smile] [smile] [smile] What Happened: The store workers are urging Apple to pay a minimum hourly wage of $30, among other things, updated information posted on their website showed. [Sad] [Sad] [Sad] Calling itself Fruit Stand Workers United, the union is seeking benefits such as increased tuition reimbursement, faster accrued, and more vacation time, among other things. [LOL] [LOL] [LOL] As part of retirement benefits, the workers expect a higher match rate for 401 (k) plans and enrollment into pension plans. [Spurting] [Spurting] [Spurti