The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business

By Jerry Maglunog To avoid inconvenience because automated teller machines (ATMs) are limited in some areas in the country, an increasing number of executives are turning to their smartphones to do mobile banking.

Tokyo—Standard & Poor’s lowered Japan’s sovereign credit rating and said it doesn’t expect Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic revival strategy to reverse deteriorating government finances within the next three years.

Washington—The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned sales of four cigarette brands from R.J. Reynolds because they did not meet the agency’s safety review requirements.

Brussels—The greatest influx of people into Europe in decades is not just a humanitarian emergency, but also a potential stroke of luck for many countries facing the economic threat of an aging population.

Havana—Pope Francis visit to Cuba and the United States is his first trip to the onetime Cold War foes after helping to nudge forward their historic rapprochement. He will be offering a show of solidarity with Cubans and making clear that Hispanics in the United States are the bedrock of the American church.

By Jim Litke / The Associated Press Lake Forest, Illinois—As Filipino-Australian golfer Jason Day’s long eagle putt at the last hole rolled down the hill and toward the hole, every revolution of the ball only added to the sense of inevitability.

By Chris Lines  / The Associated Press Singapore—Proposals to introduce a cost cap on supply of engines and a ban on wind tunnels have run into opposition from Formula One (F1) teams.

Tokyo—Zaha Hadid Architects will not enter the competition to design and deliver a new National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The highest-paid athletes today are far wealthier than they were 20 years ago, and fewer Americans rank among the top earners, according to a study from Forbes.

Leading Asian healthcare platform Practo has announced its acquisition of Insta Health Solutions—a leading provider of cutting-edge end-to-end, cloud-based hospital information management solution (HIMS) that powers hospitals across 15 countries in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa—for $12 million.