Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: Wall Street Fell on a Yield Not Seen Since 2007. Singapore's T-Bill Just Printed at 1.70%.
24 September 2026, Morning

I'm writing this one from an airport, one more flight before I'm actually home, so bear with me if it reads a touch leaner than usual. Wall Street had a rough overnight session, and the number underneath the headline drop is worth more of your attention than the drop itself.

The Numbers
The Dow fell 0.68 percent to 51,511.59, the S&P 500 dropped 0.75 percent to 7,706.03, and the Nasdaq led the slide, down 1.13 percent to 26,936.04. The driver was the bond market: the 10 year US Treasury yield pushed toward its highest level since 2007 after a stronger than expected September business survey reinforced bets on further Fed hikes, and Brent crude jumped over 4 percent past $103 a barrel on renewed Strait of Hormuz worries. Back home, the STI's last official close was 5,710.00 on 23 September, down 0.24 percent, as Singapore's own core inflation accelerated to 2.2 percent for a third straight month, the highest reading since September 2024. USD/SGD sits at 1.2797.

MAS's scheduled six month T-bill auction this morning cut off around 1.70 percent, the first genuinely clean rate figure I've had in hand all week, worth comparing against your own last renewal. On the board, Keppel REIT confirmed it's divesting a freehold Grade A office building in Seoul for US$255.8 million, StarHub and Keppel confirmed they're in talks over a potential M1 deal, and SGX itself fell 0.96 percent to $22.74 yesterday, just before announcing its own new disclosure rules aimed at what it calls a value creation culture among issuers.

My Personal Take
Rising global yields and a domestic inflation print landing on the same news cycle is really one story wearing two costumes. Every income asset on this board now has to justify itself against a higher hurdle, not because anything changed at the company level, but because the alternative your money could sit in instead just got more expensive. I'm not calling a direction on Keppel REIT, StarHub, or SGX before more detail lands: actual divestment terms, an actual M1 confirmation, how the market reacts to SGX's own rule change. I'm also keeping half an eye on the Trump-Xi state visit kicking off in Washington today. A two month trade truce extension is the kind of headline that moves sentiment fast without changing a single Singapore balance sheet. What would change my view here is a number or a term sheet, not a headline.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

5 hours ago | [YT] | 1

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: Wall Street Fell on a Yield Not Seen Since 2007. Singapore's T-Bill Just Printed at 1.70%.
24 September 2026, Morning

I'm writing this one from an airport, one more flight before I'm actually home, so bear with me if it reads a touch leaner than usual. Wall Street had a rough overnight session, and the number underneath the headline drop is worth more of your attention than the drop itself.

The Numbers
The Dow fell 0.68 percent to 51,511.59, the S&P 500 dropped 0.75 percent to 7,706.03, and the Nasdaq led the slide, down 1.13 percent to 26,936.04. The driver was the bond market: the 10 year US Treasury yield pushed toward its highest level since 2007 after a stronger than expected September business survey reinforced bets on further Fed hikes, and Brent crude jumped over 4 percent past $103 a barrel on renewed Strait of Hormuz worries. Back home, the STI's last official close was 5,710.00 on 23 September, down 0.24 percent, as Singapore's own core inflation accelerated to 2.2 percent for a third straight month, the highest reading since September 2024. USD/SGD sits at 1.2797.

MAS's scheduled six month T-bill auction this morning cut off around 1.70 percent, the first genuinely clean rate figure I've had in hand all week, worth comparing against your own last renewal. On the board, Keppel REIT confirmed it's divesting a freehold Grade A office building in Seoul for US$255.8 million, StarHub and Keppel confirmed they're in talks over a potential M1 deal, and SGX itself fell 0.96 percent to $22.74 yesterday, just before announcing its own new disclosure rules aimed at what it calls a value creation culture among issuers.

My Personal Take
Rising global yields and a domestic inflation print landing on the same news cycle is really one story wearing two costumes. Every income asset on this board now has to justify itself against a higher hurdle, not because anything changed at the company level, but because the alternative your money could sit in instead just got more expensive. I'm not calling a direction on Keppel REIT, StarHub, or SGX before more detail lands: actual divestment terms, an actual M1 confirmation, how the market reacts to SGX's own rule change. I'm also keeping half an eye on the Trump-Xi state visit kicking off in Washington today. A two month trade truce extension is the kind of headline that moves sentiment fast without changing a single Singapore balance sheet. What would change my view here is a number or a term sheet, not a headline.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

5 hours ago | [YT] | 0

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: Wall Street Fell on a Yield Not Seen Since 2007. Singapore's T-Bill Just Printed at 1.70%.
24 September 2026, Morning

I'm writing this one from an airport, one more flight before I'm actually home, so bear with me if it reads a touch leaner than usual. Wall Street had a rough overnight session, and the number underneath the headline drop is worth more of your attention than the drop itself.

The Numbers
The Dow fell 0.68 percent to 51,511.59, the S&P 500 dropped 0.75 percent to 7,706.03, and the Nasdaq led the slide, down 1.13 percent to 26,936.04. The driver was the bond market: the 10 year US Treasury yield pushed toward its highest level since 2007 after a stronger than expected September business survey reinforced bets on further Fed hikes, and Brent crude jumped over 4 percent past $103 a barrel on renewed Strait of Hormuz worries. Back home, the STI's last official close was 5,710.00 on 23 September, down 0.24 percent, as Singapore's own core inflation accelerated to 2.2 percent for a third straight month, the highest reading since September 2024. USD/SGD sits at 1.2797.

MAS's scheduled six month T-bill auction this morning cut off around 1.70 percent, the first genuinely clean rate figure I've had in hand all week, worth comparing against your own last renewal. On the board, Keppel REIT confirmed it's divesting a freehold Grade A office building in Seoul for US$255.8 million, StarHub and Keppel confirmed they're in talks over a potential M1 deal, and SGX itself fell 0.96 percent to $22.74 yesterday, just before announcing its own new disclosure rules aimed at what it calls a value creation culture among issuers.

My Personal Take
Rising global yields and a domestic inflation print landing on the same news cycle is really one story wearing two costumes. Every income asset on this board now has to justify itself against a higher hurdle, not because anything changed at the company level, but because the alternative your money could sit in instead just got more expensive. I'm not calling a direction on Keppel REIT, StarHub, or SGX before more detail lands: actual divestment terms, an actual M1 confirmation, how the market reacts to SGX's own rule change. I'm also keeping half an eye on the Trump-Xi state visit kicking off in Washington today. A two month trade truce extension is the kind of headline that moves sentiment fast without changing a single Singapore balance sheet. What would change my view here is a number or a term sheet, not a headline.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

5 hours ago | [YT] | 0

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: Wall Street Fell on a Yield Not Seen Since 2007. Singapore's T-Bill Just Printed at 1.70%.
24 September 2026, Morning

I'm writing this one from an airport, one more flight before I'm actually home, so bear with me if it reads a touch leaner than usual. Wall Street had a rough overnight session, and the number underneath the headline drop is worth more of your attention than the drop itself.

The Numbers
The Dow fell 0.68 percent to 51,511.59, the S&P 500 dropped 0.75 percent to 7,706.03, and the Nasdaq led the slide, down 1.13 percent to 26,936.04. The driver was the bond market: the 10 year US Treasury yield pushed toward its highest level since 2007 after a stronger than expected September business survey reinforced bets on further Fed hikes, and Brent crude jumped over 4 percent past $103 a barrel on renewed Strait of Hormuz worries. Back home, the STI's last official close was 5,710.00 on 23 September, down 0.24 percent, as Singapore's own core inflation accelerated to 2.2 percent for a third straight month, the highest reading since September 2024. USD/SGD sits at 1.2797.

MAS's scheduled six month T-bill auction this morning cut off around 1.70 percent, the first genuinely clean rate figure I've had in hand all week, worth comparing against your own last renewal. On the board, Keppel REIT confirmed it's divesting a freehold Grade A office building in Seoul for US$255.8 million, StarHub and Keppel confirmed they're in talks over a potential M1 deal, and SGX itself fell 0.96 percent to $22.74 yesterday, just before announcing its own new disclosure rules aimed at what it calls a value creation culture among issuers.

My Personal Take
Rising global yields and a domestic inflation print landing on the same news cycle is really one story wearing two costumes. Every income asset on this board now has to justify itself against a higher hurdle, not because anything changed at the company level, but because the alternative your money could sit in instead just got more expensive. I'm not calling a direction on Keppel REIT, StarHub, or SGX before more detail lands: actual divestment terms, an actual M1 confirmation, how the market reacts to SGX's own rule change. I'm also keeping half an eye on the Trump-Xi state visit kicking off in Washington today. A two month trade truce extension is the kind of headline that moves sentiment fast without changing a single Singapore balance sheet. What would change my view here is a number or a term sheet, not a headline.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

5 hours ago | [YT] | 1

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: Wall Street Fell on a Yield Not Seen Since 2007. Singapore's T-Bill Just Printed at 1.70%.
24 September 2026, Morning

I'm writing this one from an airport, one more flight before I'm actually home, so bear with me if it reads a touch leaner than usual. Wall Street had a rough overnight session, and the number underneath the headline drop is worth more of your attention than the drop itself.

The Numbers
The Dow fell 0.68 percent to 51,511.59, the S&P 500 dropped 0.75 percent to 7,706.03, and the Nasdaq led the slide, down 1.13 percent to 26,936.04. The driver was the bond market: the 10 year US Treasury yield pushed toward its highest level since 2007 after a stronger than expected September business survey reinforced bets on further Fed hikes, and Brent crude jumped over 4 percent past $103 a barrel on renewed Strait of Hormuz worries. Back home, the STI's last official close was 5,710.00 on 23 September, down 0.24 percent, as Singapore's own core inflation accelerated to 2.2 percent for a third straight month, the highest reading since September 2024. USD/SGD sits at 1.2797.

MAS's scheduled six month T-bill auction this morning cut off around 1.70 percent, the first genuinely clean rate figure I've had in hand all week, worth comparing against your own last renewal. On the board, Keppel REIT confirmed it's divesting a freehold Grade A office building in Seoul for US$255.8 million, StarHub and Keppel confirmed they're in talks over a potential M1 deal, and SGX itself fell 0.96 percent to $22.74 yesterday, just before announcing its own new disclosure rules aimed at what it calls a value creation culture among issuers.

My Personal Take
Rising global yields and a domestic inflation print landing on the same news cycle is really one story wearing two costumes. Every income asset on this board now has to justify itself against a higher hurdle, not because anything changed at the company level, but because the alternative your money could sit in instead just got more expensive. I'm not calling a direction on Keppel REIT, StarHub, or SGX before more detail lands: actual divestment terms, an actual M1 confirmation, how the market reacts to SGX's own rule change. I'm also keeping half an eye on the Trump-Xi state visit kicking off in Washington today. A two month trade truce extension is the kind of headline that moves sentiment fast without changing a single Singapore balance sheet. What would change my view here is a number or a term sheet, not a headline.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

5 hours ago | [YT] | 0

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: Inflation Ticks Up for a Third Straight Month. The STI Barely Noticed.
23 September 2026, Evening

(No infographic for this post; I'm on a plane right now)

The STI closed at 5,709.9, down 13.85 points, a quiet 0.24 percent day. Underneath that quiet, Singapore just posted its highest core inflation reading in two years, and the room is genuinely split on what MAS does about it in October.

The Numbers
Core inflation rose to 2.2 percent in August from 2 percent in July, the third straight monthly increase, while headline inflation, which includes accommodation and private transport, ticked up to 2.3 percent. Airline ticket costs jumped 12.9 percent, the sharpest rise in nearly four years, and services inflation climbed to 2 percent from 1.7 percent the month before. MAS already tightened the SGD NEER slope twice this year, in April and again in July, and economists are now split on whether October brings another small tightening or a hold. DBS's Chua Han Teng summed up the tension in four words, inflation "firmed but not accelerating." On the board, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (REIT) closed up 2 cents at $2.26, while Singtel slipped 4 cents to $4.28, still sitting in the Zone 4, Caution Plus territory I flagged earlier this week.

My Personal Take
Barclays called this data "more benign" than what MAS was pricing in back in July, and I think that's the real story hiding under a boring index day. The central bank tightened twice this year on the expectation that growth would eventually show up as inflation. Now the inflation is showing up, just slower and milder than the move that was meant to get ahead of it. That's not a policy mistake, it's a central bank managing a moving target in real time, but it does mean the case for October restraint gets a little stronger with every print like this one. If your T-bill or fixed deposit is coming up for renewal around then, this is exactly the kind of data that decides whether your next rate looks better or worse than the last one.

Cheers, Iggy

19 hours ago | [YT] | 0

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: The Fed, the ECB, and the Bank of Japan Are All Raising Rates. The UK, India, and China Are Not. Here's What That Means for Your CPF and SRS.
23 September 2026, Morning
Podcast

Everyone assumed hiking banks are the hawks and holding banks are the doves. That's the wrong frame entirely, and it took me a minute to see it too.

The Numbers
The BOJ hiked to 1.25% even though Japan carries one of the most indebted governments in the world, while China held for a sixteenth straight month despite industrial production actually strengthening. The real split isn't hawkish versus dovish. It's whose demand needs restraining versus whose credit demand is too weak to justify tightening at all. MAS doesn't set a policy rate the way the Fed or ECB does, but SORA mortgages, T-bill yields, and fixed deposit renewals all move with this global tug of war anyway, and UK 30-year gilt yields sitting near 5.7 to 5.9 percent this week show just how far that pressure is reaching.

My Personal Take
Your CPF Special Account keeps its government-guaranteed four percent floor no matter what any of these central banks decide this month, that part isn't moving. What's moving is what your surplus cash outside CPF competes against. If your next T-bill or fixed deposit comes up for renewal soon, the question I'd actually be asking isn't whether the new rate looks better or worse than last time. It's whether the reason behind that repricing is something likely to persist for a while, or something likely to pass in a quarter or two. That distinction is the whole episode.

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/nCfThkQ3MPU
📩 Substack: investingiguana.com/p/the-fed-the-ecb-and-the-bank…

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

1 day ago | [YT] | 0

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: EP1828 - Singtel's Yield Looks Like 4.3%. Strip Out the One-Off Dividend and It's 3.1%.
22 September 2026, Evening
Video Release

UOB Kay Hian's $5.50 target and my 4.3% yield reading aren't actually disagreeing with each other. One is pricing a Nxera transaction that hasn't happened yet. The other is measuring the cash Singtel is paying out right now.

The Numbers
A stock can clear the first test and fail the second at the same time, and that's exactly what I found when I ran the current numbers. Strip out the one-off Value Realisation Dividend and Singtel's core yield drops to 3.08%, below what CPF Special Account already pays with zero equity risk attached. The balance sheet itself isn't the issue. Gearing sits at 23.3% and interest coverage at 19.0x, both clearing with wide margin.

My Personal Take
This isn't a quality problem, it's an income problem, and that distinction matters if you're holding Singtel for the yield rather than the balance sheet. Iggy's Forensic Zone on this one is Zone 4, Caution Plus, not because the company is shaky, but because once you strip out a one-time payout, the yield you're actually being paid is doing less for you than a CPF contribution with no equity risk at all. Full breakdown of how I separated the one-off from the recurring number is in today's video.

📺 Free YouTube: https://youtu.be/mnlbZ9Ski8w
⭐ Members Edition YouTube: https://youtu.be/GC8YJtuRlLw
📩 Substack: investingiguana.com/p/singtels-yield-looks-like-43…

Get everything, full-length videos and full Substack analysis on both platforms, full Red Zone watchlist, forensic cheatsheets, with the YouTube/Substack Combo, S$12/month.

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

1 day ago | [YT] | 0

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Chip Controls, a Boeing Deal, and a Taiwan Arms Sale All Converge on One Meeting. Here's the Singapore Read.
22 September 2026, Afternoon
Podcast

Everyone's watching whether Trump and Xi get along on September 24. I'm watching a different question. What happens to the equipment makers sitting underneath the chips, if nobody in that room even mentions them.

The Numbers
Export controls have been the sticking point through every round of talks this year, and the base case going in is that nothing changes on that front. That's the boring, correct expectation, not a surprise. AEM Holdings isn't on any export control list, but it posted 1H2026 revenue up 30 percent year on year to S$247.2 million on AI and high performance computing demand, the kind of order book that moves when the rules shift for its customers. UMS Holdings, also outside the control list but in the same equipment chain, grew 1Q2026 revenue 20 percent year on year to S$69.4 million with net profit up 43 percent to S$14 million. ST Engineering sits adjacent to the separate Boeing story through its Commercial Aerospace segment, which posted H1 2026 revenue of S$2.69 billion, up 15 percent, on higher engine MRO, nacelle, and spares work, a slower read tied to fleet size, not the summit date itself.

My Personal Take
I don't think this meeting changes anything on Thursday, and that's exactly why it's worth naming the names before the meeting happens rather than after. AEM and UMS don't show up on any sanctions list, but they live in the supply chain underneath one, and that's a different kind of exposure than most people are looking for when they check whether their portfolio has "chip stocks" in it. ST Engineering is a slower, steadier story running on a completely different clock, tied to how many planes are flying, not to what gets said in one room on one day. Nothing here says reposition before Thursday. It says know which threads run through your own portfolio, because when the story breaks, it won't wait for you to figure that out first. Full breakdown of how I'm weighing all three against each other is in today's episode.

📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/-B_1nvVibqY
📩 Substack: investingiguana.com/p/chip-controls-a-boeing-deal-…

Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

1 day ago | [YT] | 0

Iggy the Investing Iguana

Iggy's Journal: Food Empire's Worst Day on the Board, Two REITs Went Quietly the Other Way
21 September 2026, Evening

The STI closed at 5,672.3, up 16.16 points, a quiet 0.29 percent day for the index. But quiet at the index level hid a rough one for at least one name on the board.

The Numbers
Food Empire fell 10 percent to $1.89 on the day, its sharpest single-session drop in a while, on volume of about 8.9 million shares. I don't have a confirmed catalyst for today's move and I'm not going to guess at one. Elsewhere, the REIT space was mixed rather than uniformly weak. Keppel DC Reit slipped 1.40 percent to $2.12 on light volume, while ManulifeReit USD moved the other way entirely, up 5.88 percent to US$0.036, the biggest percentage gainer among the more liquid names today.

My Personal Take
A ten percent drop in a single session is the kind of move that gets forwarded around group chats before anyone's actually read why it happened, and today I genuinely don't have the why. I'd rather say that plainly than fill the gap with a guess dressed up as analysis. The REIT picture is a good reminder that "REITs were weak today" is usually not true in any given session. One fell, one jumped nearly 6 percent, and the difference between them has nothing to do with sector and everything to do with the specific balance sheet underneath each ticker. That's the whole argument for reading the actual numbers instead of the sector label.


Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.

2 days ago | [YT] | 0