The Securities and Exchange Commission is telling American audit firms to be cautious about taking on as new clients Chinese firms that trade in New York, Bloomberg News reported. The warning on Tuesday follows several businesses switching to U.S. auditors amid an ongoing dispute between regulators in Washington and Beijing over access to audit work papers that could lead to about 200 companies being kicked off American stock exchanges.

Japan's household spending grew for a second straight month in July despite a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, but inflationary pressures from the yen's slump to a 24-year-low have cast doubt over a revival in consumption, Reuters reported. From falling real wages to shrinking service sector activity, data this week has shown private consumption stalling, undermining some of the gains made in April-June.

China said it will accelerate its stimulus rollout in the third quarter as it tries to recover from a second quarter marred by pandemic-related losses, Bloomberg News reported. It’s “crucially important” for the country to adopt supportive policies this quarter, Yang Yinkai, deputy secretary general at the National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters in Beijing on Monday. He was speaking alongside officials from the central bank and other government ministries.

A unit of Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund 1MDB -- which has spurred investigations around the world into deal-making and political patronage under former Prime Minister Najib Razak -- is seeking bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Brazen Sky Ltd., which is fully owned by 1Malaysia Development Bhd., filed for chapter 15 in Southern District of Florida court, according to a filing. The document listed voluntary liquidation pending in the British Virgin Islands, where Brazen Sky is incorporated.

The International Monetary Fund announced Thursday it has reached a preliminary agreement to provide Sri Lanka with $2.9 billion over four years to help it recover from its worst economic crisis, the Associated Press reported. The arrangement will help restore financial and macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability as well as enable the country’s growth potential, an IMF team visiting Sri Lanka said in a statement.

Chinese factory activity shrank and home sales tumbled in August, as the world’s second-largest economy struggled to shake off the impact from Covid-19 flare-ups, its worst heat wave in six decades and a deepening real-estate downturn, the Wall Street Journal reported. As the heat wave led to electricity shortages and production disruptions, manufacturing activity shrank for a second consecutive month, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.

One of China’s largest developers said the country’s property market has tumbled into a severe depression, using some of the strongest language yet to describe the yearlong downturn and the financial pain it has caused, the Wall Street Journal reported. Country Garden Holdings Co., which for years ranked as China’s top real-estate developer by contracted sales, on Tuesday reported a 96% drop in first-half profit after selling a third fewer homes than it did a year ago.

Lenders to Reliance Capital (RCap) received 14 resolution plans on Monday as part of the Anil Ambani-founded holding company's insolvency proceedings. A Piramal Group-led consortium, Oaktree Capital, Torrent Investments, IndusInd International and Cosmea Financial Services are among bidders who have either offered to acquire the entire company or submitted plans for select clusters, the Economic Times of India reported. Advent International and Zurich Insurance have bid for 100% stake in Reliance General Insurance (RGI), the people said.

Sri Lanka’s president said yesterday that his bankrupt country’s talks with the International Monetary Fund for a rescue package have successfully reached final stages as he presented an amended budget that seeks to tame inflation and hike taxes, the Associated Press reported. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is also the finance minister, said in a speech in Parliament that his government will soon start negotiating debt restructuring with countries that provide loans to Sri Lanka.

Global funds that invested in China Evergrande Group's bonds have come up with their own debt restructuring plan for the property developer and demanded that its chair repay liabilities with his own fortune, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, according to Reuters. With more than $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrande, once China's top-selling developer, has been at the centre of the crisis and its debt restructuring plan is seen as a possible template for others.