Wall Street lenders are postponing leveraged-finance deals as investors shy away from risky transactions while global markets have been shaken in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, Bloomberg News reported. In the past several days, banks have pushed at least two leveraged-loan sales to the sidelines. They involve funding for HIG Capital LLC’s planned purchase of Canadian firm Converge Technology Solutions Corp. and a dividend to ITG Communications LLC owner Oaktree Capital Management. Lender commitments for both deals were due last week.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a limited set of counter measures against U.S. tariffs on Thursday while calling President Donald Trump's protectionist moves a tragedy for global trade, Reuters reported. Carney said that the Canadian government will copy the U.S. approach by imposing a 25% tariff on all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal. The new measure will apply to C$35.6 billion ($25.3 billion) worth of imports, a government spokesperson said.

Canada’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.7 per cent in March, up from 6.6 per cent the month before, as the economy lost 33,000 jobs, Statistics Canada said on Friday, the Financial Post reported. The job losses were the largest decrease in employment since January 2022. Nearly 1.5 million people were unemployed in March, up 36,000 from the previous month and 167,000 from a year ago. Employment fell in the wholesale and retail trade, information, culture and recreation, agriculture, manufacturing and construction sectors.

Canada’s economic growth came to a halt after a solid start to the year as tariff threats mounted, Bloomberg News reported. Advance data showed gross domestic product was unchanged in February, Statistics Canada said Friday. That followed a robust 0.4% expansion in January, the strongest monthly pace since April last year and beating the median estimate of economists. Assuming there’s also no growth in March, the industry-based numbers point to annualized 2.1% growth in the first quarter, versus the Bank of Canada’s forecast of 2% and the 1.6% expected by economists in a Bloomberg survey.

Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney promised a C$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” to help Canadian auto manufacturing and strengthen a supply chain that’s under threat from US tariffs, Bloomberg News reported. Carney, who became prime minister less than two weeks ago, said a government led by him would try to build an “all-in-Canada” network for auto parts, working with industry to make more parts in the country and limit the number that have to cross the Canada-US border during production. But he gave few details on how that would work.

Canadians have long been the top international travelers to the U.S. Now, they are staying home, the Wall Street Journal reported. After President Trump said that he would impose tariffs on Canada, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encouraged Canadians to change their vacation plans to focus on exploring sites within the country. It worked. Canadian residents returned from 13% fewer trips by air to the U.S. in February than they did a year ago, according to preliminary data from Statistics Canada.

An Ontario court on Friday gave Hudson’s Bay, Canada’s oldest company, permission to start liquidating all but six of its stores on Monday, the Associated Press reported. The approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer, which dates back to 1670, to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada. “This is the art of the possible and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Judge Osborne said.

Canadian consumers pared back their spending for a second straight month amid trade war uncertainty, only partially reversing a year-end boost in sales after a federal sales tax was paused, Bloomberg News reported. An advance estimate suggests receipts for retailers fell 0.4% in February, Statistics Canada said Friday. The declines follow a 2.6% spike in sales in December that coincided with the start of the break in sales taxes on some items. Still, the first back-to-back decreases since mid-2023 may point to mounting pressures on consumption from concerns about the US-Canada tariff war.

The U.S. mission told China and Canada it was ready to confer with its officials in Geneva after those two countries filed trade disputes in response to new tariffs, World Trade Organization documents showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Canada requested consultations - the first step in a WTO trade dispute - earlier this month in response to "unjustified tariffs" imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month. China launched a dispute after Trump tariffs on Chinese goods in February.

Inflation in Canada grew at the fastest pace in eight months, further limiting the central bank’s ability to cut interest rates amid a trade war that will both slow economic growth and boost prices, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index rose at a 2.6% yearly pace last month, the highest rate since June and up from 1.9% in January, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. The index jumped 1.1% on a monthly basis in February, the fastest pace in nearly three years.