The final quarter of 2018 saw the US market taking its biggest fall in almost a decade, with investors from virtually everywhere cashing or pulling out - except those based in Singapore.THE final quarter of 2018 saw the US market taking its biggest fall in almost a decade, with investors from virtually everywhere cashing or pulling out - except those based in Singapore.
On the whole, foreign investors - unnerved by rising US interest rates, an economic slowdown and ongoing China-US trade talks - dumped a net US$46.0 billion in stocks on Wall Street in the quarter which saw the Standard & Poor 500 and Dow indices plunged 13.97 and 11.8 per cent respectively, their worst showings since 2011.Singapore-based investors are one of the biggest Asian traders on the New York Stock Exchange . The others are the Japanese and Hong Kongers.
The foreign exodus brought the S&P 500 and Dow crashing for the first time in three years, posting an average 6.2 and 5.6 per cent drop in US dollar, respectively. It was the first time ever that the S&P 500 fell after rising in the first three quarters. According to US Treasury figures, US investors unloaded a net US$27.2 billion in foreign equities in the Oct-Dec quarter and US$43.5 billion for the whole of last year.