Japan, the world's second-largest economy, has fallen into recession, the government said Monday. The country's gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 0.4 percent from July to September, marking the second consecutive quarter of negative growth, the Washington Post reported today. Japan's economy minister warned that the situation could worsen: Collapsing sales of Japanese goods in the United States and Europe amid the global downturn threaten to make the country's export-dependent economy even weaker in coming months.

UBS suffered its heaviest blow yet in the investigation into its offshore banking activities for rich American clients as US authorities said they had indicted Raoul Weil, the Swiss bank’s head of global wealth management, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

Storm Cat Energy Corporation announced that all of its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiaries filed for a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, the International Business Times reported today. Storm Cat Energy Corporation was not included in the U.S. bankruptcy filing, nor did it file an application for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in Canada. Storm Cat is in negotiations with its existing lenders to secure sufficient debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.

Seoul shares slipped 2 percent on Tuesday as demand worries following a bankruptcy filing by a major U.S. electronics retailer sent tech exporters such as LG Electronics lower, Reuters reported yesterday. Banks also fell on jitters about funding difficulties and rising bad debt. The United States is South Korea's second-biggest export market. Appliance and mobile phone maker LG Electronics dropped 6.99 percent and LG Display, a maker of flat screens for TVs and computers, declined 6.46 percent. Hynix, which produces chips used in computers and consumer electronics, fell 8.52 percent.