Main headline news dominating 1Q is when the Fed will start cutting its interest rate. So far from the last 2 day policy meeting a few days ago, the Fed is still maintaining its stance that they see 0.75% cut by end of 2024. Majority of the analyst predicts that the first cut will be in June 2024. Anyway, so long the Fed start cutting its interest rate, it will be good news for the Reits, which have been hammered down (especially the US Office Reits) since 1-2 year ago. For myself, I will probably continue accumulating US Office Reits, since their price now is at rock bottom and there is little risk they will go Chapter 11 as they have suspended their dividend payment for the year.
DJI ended at 39807, an increase of 2118 points (+5.61%) compared to 4Q 2023. For Singapore, STI ended at 3224, a decrease of 16 points (-0.49%) compared to last quarter. While investors continued pouring into the USA market for high tech stocks with the Fed signaling they are done with the interest rate increase; however, there is not much movement in the Singapore market partly due to investors holding their ground against buying into the banks counter (consisting of 46.40% STI weightage) as banks are typically bearish due to their shrinking NIM in a decreasing interest rate environment.
Anyway, below are my transactions for 1Q 2024:
Transaction 1: Sold 1 batch Man Utd shares in February.
Accepted the tender offer of Sir Ratcliffe at $33 per share, parting with 26% of my holdings.
Transaction 2: Bought 1 batch Veralto shares in February.
New company spin-off from Danaher, focusing on environmental and applied solutions. I believe there is potential for the company to continue growing in the field through the usage of Danaher Business System, which is essentially lean manufacturing and using free cash flow to acquire companies.
Transaction 3: Bought 1 batch Grab shares in February.
Grab has started turning around by reducing the incentives given out. Their digital banks in Singapore and Malaysia has just started operation and they are ramping up their advertisement income segment. Cannot wait for Grab to reach its full potential!!
That is all for now. See you all in Q2 2024 update and thank you for reading thus far.
