Singapore, Jan 13, 2026, 14:57 SGT — Regular session
- UOB shares up 0.22% at S$36.17 in afternoon trade
- Bank bought back and cancelled 38,000 shares on Jan 12, a filing showed
- Traders focus shifts to U.S. CPI later Tuesday and the Fed’s late-January meeting
United Overseas Bank (UOB) shares edged higher on Tuesday after the Singapore lender disclosed a fresh share buyback at the start of the week. UOB was up 0.22% at S$36.17 by 2:46 p.m. local time, while DBS Group rose 0.74% and OCBC gained 1.16%.
A filing showed UOB bought back 38,000 shares on Jan 12 for S$1.37 million, paying between S$36.02 and S$36.18 a share, and cancelled the stock. The bank has repurchased 19.05 million shares since the mandate began in April 2025, about 1.14% of its issued shares, the filing showed.
Buybacks matter more than the day-to-day price tick when rates are moving and investors are trying to handicap bank earnings in 2026. For lenders, net interest margin — the spread between what they earn on loans and what they pay on deposits — can swing with benchmarks, sometimes quickly.
In the U.S., several big brokers have pushed back their expected Federal Reserve rate cuts after the latest labour-market data, a shift that has fed through to global bond pricing. J.P. Morgan now expects the Fed’s next move to be a hike in 2027, while Goldman Sachs and Barclays delayed their cut calls into later 2026; J.P. Morgan said “the Fed could still ease later this year” if the data turn. Reuters
That makes Tuesday’s U.S. inflation report the next near-term tripwire for rate expectations. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast December CPI up 0.3% on the month and 2.7% on the year, and TD Securities’ chief U.S. macro strategist Oscar Munoz said the report should show “meaningful payback” after collection distortions tied to the government shutdown. Reuters
At home, OCBC’s head of equity research Carmen Lee pointed to “inflation, US Federal Reserve policy and interest rates” as key drivers for market direction as investors reposition early in the year. The Business Times
Still, buybacks don’t erase the bigger debate around bank margins and credit. UOB has flagged lower 2026 net interest margins after a sharp third-quarter profit fall that was hit by a jump in credit provisions, underscoring the risk that earnings momentum cools even if capital returns stay supportive.
The downside case is straightforward: a hotter inflation print, sticky funding costs, or another bump in credit quality could swamp the signalling value of small daily repurchases. In that kind of tape, buybacks become background noise.
The next catalyst lands later Tuesday with the U.S. CPI release at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by the Fed’s Jan. 27-28 policy meeting — two dates investors are using to map the rate path that feeds into bank stocks.
