South Korean banking stocks slumped after President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed sympathy for the country’s mom-and-pop business owners suffering from high interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. During Monday’s cabinet meeting, Yoon introduced comments from small business owners, who likened themselves to “slaves” for banks as they spend most of their earnings in repaying loans. The remarks came at a time when sentiment toward the sector was already weak following a late Sunday report on potential windfall charges on lenders’ excess profit.

European Union officials voiced their shock after Australia’s top negotiator pushed back from a potential trade deal with the 27-nation bloc for the second time in a matter of months, Bloomberg News reported. Despite optimism ahead of planned discussions in Osaka, Japan, the two sides were never actually able to sit down to make a final breakthrough over the weekend.

Australia's red-hot rental housing market, supercharged by record migration and a chronic supply shortage, could be reaching a breaking point for affordability as tenants grapple with rising costs of living, Reuters reported. Nationwide vacancies are at all-time lows and prices are up 30% over three years. Rent is now one of the country's biggest drivers of inflation, which at an annual rate of 5.4% in the September quarter is well above the central banks' targeted band of 2% to 3% and could lead to further interest rate hikes as early as next week.

A sluggish Chinese economy is causing distress to pop up in unexpected corners of Europe’s junk credit markets, with companies pushed into debt restructurings due to events happening far away, Bloomberg News reported. Take Wittur Holding GmbH, a German maker of elevator components: Its revenue plunged after a real estate bubble burst in China, one of its main markets. As construction of new buildings all but stopped, demand dried up.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has allowed the withdrawal of the insolvency plea against Bajaj Hindusthan by the State Bank of India, as the outstanding amount has been paid by the sugar manufacturer, Zee Business reported. SBI had moved an application before the Allahabad bench of the NCLT informing that the outstanding amount has been paid by the Corporate Debtor.

The Catholic church insurer wants to establish a scheme that would stave off its own insolvency by paying church bodies only a fraction of the money owed to abuse survivors at rates to be determined by the scandal-plagued consultancy PwC, documents show, the Guardian reported. Catholic Church Insurance is facing significant financial turmoil due to the rising volume of abuse claims, estimating it has $381m in liabilities relating to professional standards payouts to various church entities, including dioceses and church-aligned charities.

Core consumer inflation in Japan's capital Tokyo, considered a leading indicator of nationwide trends, unexpectedly accelerated in October, a sign of broadening price pressures that may keep alive expectations of near-term end to ultra-low interest rates, Reuters reported. The data reinforces expectations the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will revise up its inflation forecasts when it produces fresh quarterly projections at next week's policy meeting.

With China’s property bust threatening to sink the country’s economic recovery, Xi Jinping is looking for someone to blame, the Wall Street Journal reported. After putting the billionaire founder of Evergrande, a heavily indebted property firm, under investigation for possible crimes, Beijing is expanding its probes to include bankers and financial institutions that facilitated developers’ risky behavior. Among those under scrutiny: a former head of Bank of China, one of the country’s biggest lenders.

Turkey’s central bank delivered another sizable interest-rate increase on Thursday and signaled it could tighten policy further to rein in inflation that’s on track to end this year near 70%, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan, lifted its benchmark rate to 35% from 30%, in line with most forecasts. Turkish bank stocks rose as much as 3% after the decision before paring gains as of 3:52 p.m. local time. The lira was little changed.

Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co. was deemed to be in default on a dollar bond for the first time ever, underscoring its fall into distress amid a broader property debt crisis that’s shaken the world’s second-biggest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Country Garden’s failure to pay interest on the note within a grace period that ended last week “constitutes an event of default,” according to a notice to holders from trustee Citicorp International Ltd. seen by Bloomberg News.