Bloomberg The Japanese government cut its formula-based assessment of the economy to indicate that economic conditions were worsening in August, an outcome signaling a higher risk that Japan could be entering a recession. The coincident economic index fell 0.4 point to 99.3 in August, the Cabinet Office reported on Monday, compared with an economists’ estimate of 99.4. The leading economic ...

Bloomberg This year’s railroad slump is getting worse as a slowdown in manufacturing threatens broader weakness in the US economy. There’s no bottom in sight as the decline in carloads for large US railroads widened to 5.5% in the third quarter, the biggest drop in three years, according to weekly reports from the Association of American Railroads. Shipments are down ...

Bloomberg General Electric (GE) Co took a bold step to cut the debt hampering Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp’s effort to turn around the struggling manufacturer, freezing pension benefits for about 20,000 employees in the US. The company also plans to pre-fund $4 billion to $5 billion of its estimated requirements for 2021 and 2022, according to a statement on ...