China's factory output slowed for a third straight month in July, showing that the recovery in the world's second-largest economy was losing steam, although the battered consumer sector perked up slightly as stimulus targeting households took effect, Reuters reported. A mixed batch of data on Thursday pointed to a patchy start to the second half for the $19 trillion economy and gave policymakers continued cause for concern following dismal export, prices and bank lending indicators earlier this month.

Japan's economy expanded by a much faster-than-expected annualized 3.1% in the second quarter, rebounding from a slump at the start of the year thanks to a strong rise in consumption and backing the case for another near-term interest rate hike, Reuters reported. The Bank of Japan had forecast that a solid economic recovery will help inflation sustainably hit its 2% target, and justify raising interest rates further after it hiked them last month in its continued quest to exit years of massive monetary stimulus.

While bankruptcy applications in Singapore were at an 18-year high in 2023, actual bankruptcy orders, and corporate insolvencies, were lower than the application numbers, and also below pre-COVID levels, Yahoo Finance reported. This was noted in a reply by Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) board member, in Parliament. There were 3,986 bankruptcy applications made by individuals or their creditors over unpaid debts of more than S$15,000 in 2023.

A recent string of dismal indicators have dulled expectations for China's economic performance in July, in an ominous sign for the rest of 2024 and pointing to the need for more stimulus measures beyond plastering over pain points in the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. Calls for more growth boosting measures for the $19 trillion economy have dogged officials after a widely expected post-pandemic recovery failed to materialize in 2023. Still, the government is targeting economic growth of around 5% this year. The latest data point to a rocky start to the second half.

India's Pipavav Shipyard is scheduled to resume its business operations under a new management team and after emerging from bankruptcy, Baird Maritime reported. The yard's first project after reopening will be the repair of an Indian Coast Guard vessel. Also, discussions with an undisclosed shipping company are ongoing with the aim of finalizing contracts for the construction of new large bulk carriers. Pipavav Shipyard is now majority co-owned by Mumbai-based Swan Energy through a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which acquired the shipyard.

India's top court on Wednesday revived insolvency proceedings against education technology company Byju's following a lawsuit by a trust representing U.S. lenders who say they are owed $1 billion by the company, Reuters reported. The Supreme Court order is a setback for founder Byju Raveendran whose eponymous online coaching company was valued at $22 billion in 2022 before suffering setbacks including boardroom exits, an auditor resignation, and a public spat with foreign investors over alleged mismanagement. The company has denied any wrongdoing.

Japan’s economy rebounded to growth in the second quarter on the back of an increase in private consumption, in a sign that a virtuous cycle long sought by the central bank linking rising incomes to increased spending may be starting to emerge, Bloomberg reported. Gross domestic product expanded at an annualized pace of 3.1% in the three months through June versus the prior period, the Cabinet Office reported Thursday. The reading, which exceeded the 2.3% consensus estimate, came after the economy contracted by a revised 2.3% in the first quarter.

The world’s biggest steel producer sounded the alarm about an industry crisis in China that carries the potential to ripple around the globe and plunge the sector into a deeper downturn, Bloomberg reported. Conditions in China’s steel sector are like a “harsh winter” that will be “longer, colder and more difficult to endure than we expected,” China Baowu Steel Group Corp. chairman Hu Wangming told staff at the company’s half-year meeting, warning of a worse challenge than major traumas in 2008 and 2015.

South Korea's mom-and-pop investors are defying last week's global financial markets rout by pouring even more funds into U.S. stocks, a years-long trend that analysts and investors bet will continue due to the depressed value proposition at home, Reuters reported. South Korean retailers have been scooping up Nvidia, Tesla Inc. and Apple shares this year fueled in part by the worldwide AI-frenzy, a move that comes despite government efforts to boost the domestic stock market.

A group of senior Biden administration officials is traveling to Shanghai this week for a round of high-level meetings intended to keep the economic relationship between the U.S. and China on stable footing amid mounting trade tensions between the two countries, the New York Times reported. The talks will take place on Thursday and Friday and are being convened through the U.S.-China Financial Working Group, which was created last year.