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Navigating market volatility

Navigating market volatility

  • June 2026
  • By OCBC
  • 10 mins

Despite the backdrop of continued uncertainty surrounding the Middle East peace process, elevated energy prices, and the persistent inflationary pressures faced by global central banks, risk assets continued to demonstrate remarkable resilience. Given the relatively resilient macroeconomic and earnings outlook, we are moderately constructive on equities. In fixed income, we favour high-quality issuers.

Structured Investments

As AI adoption deepens — particularly through agentic applications — inference workloads are emerging as the primary driver of AI growth, requiring continuous, low-latency and energy-efficient compute and marking a shift toward scalable, monetised deployments. This evolution supports stronger enterprise integration and aligns with improving software sector fundamentals, where AI enhances rather than displaces demand. Application-layer platforms such as ServiceNow Inc. and Autodesk Inc. stand to benefit from AI-enabled enhancements to workflows and productivity.

  • ServiceNow Inc continues to demonstrate strong execution as it expands organically beyond information technology service management (ITSM) into adjacent workflows such as customer service and HR service delivery, supporting a more durable and diversified growth profile. Its leadership in ITSM has reinforced its position as a system of record for enterprise IT workflows, providing a strong foundation for further workflow expansion. The company also delivers robust profitability and free cash flow generation, enabling continued platform investment, strategic acquisitions, and shareholder returns. As enterprises increasingly prioritise workflow automation and operational efficiency, ServiceNow remains well positioned to benefit from deeper adoption and cross-selling across its platform.
  • Autodesk Inc continues to execute strongly as it advances its industry cloud strategy, with growing adoption of its Forma, Fusion, and Flow platforms providing further headroom for revenue expansion. The increasing complexity of construction and infrastructure projects, alongside rising government mandates for Building Information Modelling (BIM), supports sustained demand for Autodesk’s solutions and reinforces its position as a key beneficiary of digitalisation across the built environment. With its product portfolio in strong shape, Autodesk has cemented its status as the industry standard for design software, enabling it to deepen engagement with existing customers while attracting new users through an interconnected ecosystem that enhances collaboration and accelerates the flow of design data across stakeholders.

Bonds Research Highlights

Temasek Holdings Private Limited (USD)

This bond pays a coupon of 3.625% pa with maturity date on 1 August 2028. Founded in 1974, Temasek Holdings Private Limited (Temasek) is an investment holding company headquartered in Singapore. It is 100%-owned by the Government of Singapore, through the country’s Ministry of Finance. The company was established by the government for the purposes of owning and managing commercial investments on its behalf. It had total assets under management of SG$389bn (US$288bn) as at end-March 2024. Temasek is rated Aaa (Stable Outlook) by Moody’s and AAA (Stable Outlook) by S&P Global; in line with the sovereign rating for Singapore, as it is considered to be a government-related entity by both rating agencies. In that regard, both rating agencies assume a high probability of extra-ordinary government support for Temasek, in the unlikely event of need.

Research summary:

  • With Temasek’s long term investment horizon, their investment approach is to ride out short-term market volatility and focus on generating sustainable returns over the long term. Temasek has generated an annualised SGD return of 5.0% over the past 10 years, 7.0% over the past 20 years and 14.0% since inception. Their cumulative net investment has totalled SG$57bn over the past 10 years.
  • Liquidity is ample, with Temasek having sources of cash via divestments, dividends, distribution from funds as well as public listings. Gross cumulative divestments over the past 10 years to March 2025 amounted to SG$303bn while annual dividend was SGD11.1bn SG$11.1bn.
  • Total debt due in the next 10 years only takes up 17% of the current liquidity balance, providing a significant cushion against long-term debt service obligations.

Source: OCBC Group Research. The Information is provided to you as an “Accredited Investor” (defined under the Securities and Futures Act of Singapore and the Securities and Futures (Classes of Investors) Regulations 2018). If you would like to access the full research report on this bond, please reach out to your Client Advisor.

Funds

Multi-asset Funds

Lion-Bank of Singapore CIO Supertrends Multi Asset Fund

The Lion-BOS CIO Supertrends Multi-Asset Fund is a multi-asset strategy that aims to provide income and long-term capital growth by investing in a diversified portfolio of asset classes including global equities, ETFs, global bonds, the writing of equity covered call options and other collective investment schemes. Guided by research from Bank of Singapore’s award-winning Chief Investment Office, the fund takes a rigorous research-based approach to identify quality companies within equities and fixed income with resilient business models and robust fundamentals. The fund also has distribution share classes for investors looking for dividend income.

Schroder ISF Multi-Asset Growth and Income Fund

The Schroder ISF Multi-Asset Growth and Income Fund aims to provide capital growth and income over a three-to-five-year period after fees have been deducted by investing in a diversified range of assets and markets worldwide. The fund has distribution share classes for investors looking for a combination of capital growth and income.

PIMCO Balanced Income & Growth Fund

The PIMCO Balanced Income & Growth Fund is a global multi-sector strategy that seeks to combine PIMCO’s total return investment process and philosophy with income maximisation. The portfolio construction is founded on the principle of diversification across a broad range of equity and global fixed income securities. The fund has a historical annualised dividend yield of 6.80% p.a.

Note: Past performance figures do not reflect future performance. Dividend figures are from Bloomberg, as of 29 May 2026.

Bond Funds

PIMCO GIS Income Fund

The PIMCO GIS Income Fund is designed for investors who seek steady income with a secondary goal of capital appreciation. It takes a broad-based approach to investing in income-generating bonds. The fund aims to achieve this by employing PIMCO’s best income-generating ideas across global fixed income sectors. The fund has a historical annualised dividend yield of 6.79% p.a.

Note: Past performance figures do not reflect future performance. Dividend figures are from Bloomberg, as of 29 May 2026.

M&G (Lux) Optimal Income

The M&G (Lux) Optimal Income Fund is a global bond fund that aims to provide a combination of capital growth and income to deliver a return based on exposure to optimal income streams in investment markets, while applying environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. The fund has a historical annualised dividend yield of 5.68% p.a.

Note: Past performance figures do not reflect future performance. Dividend figures are from Bloomberg, as of 29 May 2026.

Equity Funds

M&G (Lux) Asian Fund

The M&G (Lux) Asian Fund is an Asian equity fund that aims to provide combined income and capital growth that is higher than that of the Asia (ex Japan) stock market (as measured by the MSCI All Country Asia Pacific ex Japan Net Return Index) over any five-year period, while applying environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

Abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund

The Abrdn Global Dynamic Dividend Fund is a global equity fund that aims to achieve income combined with long-term capital growth. It invests at least two-thirds of its assets in equities and equity-related securities of companies. To increase the overall level of income generated, a small portion of investments are held for short periods of time to capture regular dividends that are paid along with one-off or special dividends from companies.

Currencies

We remain neutral on the US Dollar (USD), expecting it to stay firm but rangebound. The Fed is stepping away from an easing bias as US growth remains resilient and inflation persists, supporting recent USD strength. Signals around new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s first FOMC meeting suggest a shift toward neutrality. Elevated energy prices weigh unevenly on global growth, with the US outperforming Europe and China, aided by AI-driven investment. A US-Iran deal reopening the Strait of Hormuz could weaken the USD via lower oil prices, though downside may be limited. Brent is expected near US$80/barrel by year-end. Meanwhile, the Singapore Dollar should stay supported by strong growth, rising inflation pressures, and potential MAS tightening.