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The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan involving liabilities of at least ¥10 million ($63,000) totaled 851 last month, the highest level in 13 years for a February, Tokyo Shoko Research said Monday, the Japan Times reported. The figure marked a year-on-year rise of 11.3% and the third consecutive monthly increase, driven in part by worsening business conditions that reflected sluggish sales and growing labor shortages. By industry, the service sector saw the largest increase, climbing 30.9% to 309 cases.

A measure of credit risk jumped and bond sales in Europe were put on hold on concerns that soaring oil prices and a prolonged war in the Middle East will weaken corporate balance sheets and heighten repayment risks, Bloomberg reported. A handful of corporate and financial-sector borrowers that had been looking at raising debt in Europe stood down, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. With deals already delayed last week, there is now a pipeline of issuers waiting to tap the market when the opportunity arises, some of the people said.

The default rate among U.S. corporate borrowers of private credit rose to a record 9.2% in 2025, ​according to a report Friday by credit rating agency ‌Fitch Ratings, Reuters reported. In its monitor of 302 companies with outstanding private credit debt, Fitch recorded 38 defaults among 28 different borrowers. The 9.2% default rate in ​2025 follows a previous record 8.1% rate of defaults ​in 2024. Smaller issuers with $25 million or less in earnings made ⁠up the majority of last year's defaults, which were diversified ​among sectors, according to the report.

Central banks across Europe came under market pressure on Monday to lift interest rates as the war in Iran drove up ​energy costs and revived the spectre of another inflation wave, Reuters reported. Money markets ramped up bets on rate increases by the European Central ‌Bank, the Swiss National Bank and Sweden's Riksbank before year-end, with the Bank of England seen following suit in 2027. The unusually sharp repricing came as major oil producers cut supply and fears grew of prolonged shipping disruptions, pushing crude above $119 a barrel — its highest level since mid‑2022.

A site run by Domo Chemicals, which makes compounds that end up in fuel tanks, swimsuits and food packaging, unexpectedly filed for insolvency after running short on the cash needed to operate equipment to convert benzene into nylon. An uncontrolled shutdown risked leaking toxic substances, threatening nearby operators as well as the 14,000 residents living in the east German industrial town of Leuna.

With oil prices surging and the conflict in the Middle East intensifying, the economic stakes for China are rising, the New York Times reported. The cost of oil on Monday hit levels not seen in four years, one week after the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran, an ally and financial partner to China. Fighting has halted virtually all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for China’s energy and goods. China has a lot to lose in a widening conflict. In Iran, China found a cheap source of oil in recent years.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva said that lengthy hostilities in the Middle East would risk hitting markets and economies, while throwing up unexpected challenges that require policymakers to prepare for a “new normal,” Bloomberg reported. “If the new conflict proves prolonged, it has clear and obvious potential to affect market sentiment, growth and inflation, placing new demands on policymakers,” Georgieva said Monday at a symposium in Tokyo.

More than two thirds of Irish companies operating in the UK plan to increase their workforce over the next 12 months, according to a survey by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Times reported. The agency said that the finding revealed that its client companies are no longer just trading partners “but are deeply embedded, permanent contributors to the UK economy”. Enterprise Ireland companies which include Version 1, Fexco, Sisk Group, CWSI employ about 150,000 people in the UK while the market accounted for €10.5 billion in exports in 2024.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a civil ‌lawsuit seeking to hold Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and founder Changpeng Zhao liable for transactions that allegedly helped terrorist groups conduct 64 attacks around the world, Reuters reported. U.S.

Hudson’s Bay is sending its coat collection to the auction block, the Canadian Press. The latest sale of the company’s treasures features 56 coats, including many with HBC’s iconic stripes motif. Some of the coats are a nod to the 355-year-old company’s fur trading history and are made of beaver, silver fox or mink fur. Others were made in partnership with Canadian designers Smythe and HiSO. Also part of the auction are dozens of art pieces, a reproduction of the 1670 royal charter that formed the company, vintage cash registers and an HBC piano.