JAPAN

Corporate Pessimism Deepens: A Bank of Japan report showed that corporate gloom deepened in August, leaving economists with serious doubts about a recovery. The central bank’s quarterly survey, called the tankan, showed that corporate sentiment plunged from the already low levels of the previous survey, conducted in May. The so-called diffusion index of the sentiment of major manufacturers dropped to minus 37 in August from minus 24 in May. The May report had predicted a slight improvement in August. The failure of those expectations to materialize was a sign that the economic slump was turning out to be more persistent than anticipated, economists said.