Economists and analysts now predict a sharper dip in Singapore's GDP

US stocks ended lower on Wednesday, as spiking Treasury yields and rising commodity prices added to worries that inflation could limit any recovery effort. U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday on worries that rising interest rates could put a damper on consumer and business spending, but stocks pared losses late in the session to finish off the day's lows. The market had extended losses after a 10-year Treasury note auction sparked a sell-off in bonds, pushing yields briefly above 4 percent for the first time since October. Stocks recovered from the sell-off after the bond market rebounded, with the yield at 3.9455 percent. Investors are worried that higher yields, which act as a benchmark for many lending rates, could handcuff an economic recovery. Interest rate-sensitive stocks, such as homebuilders and financials, were among the primary laggards, with the Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction index off 1.5 percent and the S&P Financial index down 1.6 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 24.04 points, or 0.27 percent, to 8,739.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 3.28 points, or 0.35 percent, to 939.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 7.05 points, or 0.38 percent, to 1,853.08.

Property auctions are in vogue again, with deals touching $18.5 million in May alone. This is higher than the $17.9 million for the whole of Q1 this year, show Colliers International figures. Banks are playing their part by occasionally stepping aside and letting owners hock their own properties. This is because prices tend to slide when financial institutions repossess a property and offer it as mortgagee sale. After a slow start to the year, a total of $47.7 million worth of properties have been sold at auction in the first five months. Colliers deputy managing director and auctioneer Grace Ng is now predicting that the year would see about $150 million of auction deals - compared to $83.7 million for 2008, which was an 11-year low. The May figure is the highest since August last year, when auction sales touched about $22.7 million. But last August's number was bumped up by state auctions that raised $13.81 million, while no such special factor was at play in May.

Economists and analysts now predict a sharper dip in Singapore's GDP for the full-year than they forecast in March, but continue to expect the rate of contraction to slow in the coming quarters, according to a quarterly survey by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, released yesterday. The survey showed that 19 professional forecasters polled in late May now expect Singapore's economy to shrink 6.5 per cent this year, worse than the 4.9 per cent contraction forecast in March. This comes in at the higher end of the official forecast of a 6 to 9 per cent contraction. For the second quarter, the median forecast from respondents was a 7.7 contraction in GDP from a year earlier, a larger decline than the 6.9 per cent fall predicted in March.