Australian retail sales barely grew for a fourth straight month in May as gains in clothing purchases were offset by a rare drop in food sales, bolstering the case for another cut in interest rates next week, Reuters reported. The result dashed hopes that lower borrowing costs and rising real incomes would revive household demand, suggesting the Reserve Bank of Australia will have to again downgrade consumption forecasts, in a blow to the economic outlook.

After failing to cut a trade deal with Japan following weeks of talks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer decided to turn up the pressure. When Japanese officials arrived in Washington in late May, Lutnick and Greer warned them that if the two sides couldn’t work out an agreement soon, the conversations might start shifting from easing the tariffs President Trump had recently imposed toward additional punitive measures, according to people familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he has reached a trade deal with Vietnam, just ahead of the 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs ending for more than 90 countries that barter with the U.S., Freight Waves reported. Goods from Vietnam to the U.S. will now face a 20% import tax, instead of the 46% duty rate Trump said he would impose on merchandise from the country during his “Liberation Day” announcement on April 2. Trump paused the reciprocal tariffs on imports from most countries for 90 days on April 9, but kept a 10% baseline import tax in place for almost all U.S.

Turkish steelmaker Sıddık Kardeşler Haddecilik, has been unable to overcome its ongoing financial difficulties and has filed for bankruptcy proceedings, SteelOrbis.com reported. Accordingly, the company and its partners have filed for bankruptcy with the Istanbul Anatolia Second Commercial Court of First Instance, with its debt reportedly amounting to TRY 2.6 billion ($90.32 million). The court granted the company a three-month temporary notice and appointed a temporary bankruptcy commissioner.

China’s manufacturing activity declined for the third straight month in June as trade frictions with the U.S. continued to weigh on the world’s second-largest economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index for June–the first full month after the China-U.S. trade truce was reached in London–came in at 49.7, edging up from May’s 49.5 and matching the 49.7 tipped by a Wall Street Journal poll of economists, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

China’s home sales extended their slump in June, putting further strain on the economy and underscoring the impetus for fresh support measures, Bloomberg News reported. The value of new-home sales from the 100 largest property companies stood at 339 billion yuan ($47.3 billion), the latest preliminary data from China Real Estate Information Corp. on Monday showed. That represents a 23% fall from a year ago, according to Bloomberg calculations. June’s sales follows an 8.6% decline in May. On a monthly basis, however, the latest sales were up 14.7% from May, CRIC said.

Japan’s industrial production increased modestly in May, but the rebound is likely to be temporary due to the impact of U.S. tariffs and concerns over a global slowdown, the Wall Street Journal reported. Industrial production rose 0.5% in May from the previous month, after declining 1.1% in April, data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed on Monday. The May reading was much weaker than the 3.5% increase expected in a poll of economists by data provider Quick.