Headlines

More than three dozen Eclipse condo building pre-sale purchasers asking a B.C. Supreme Court judge to declare their contracts unenforceable for alleged breaches of B.C.'s Real Estate Development Marketing Act (REDMA) by insolvent Thind Properties, CBC.ca. The proceedings threaten to upend a standard creditor protection process by pitting provincial legislation protecting real estate consumers against federal laws designed to give debtors "breathing room" needed to repay creditors.

Factory activity in Canada rose strongly last month, with an early estimate pointing to a further advance in sales on the back of a surge in oil prices, the Wall Street Journal reported. Manufacturing shipments increased an estimated 4.6% in April from the month prior, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. That would mark a third straight month of improving sales for the industry. The largest increase in April sales was again in the petroleum and coal segment, the national statistics agency said.

Profits at Canada’s largest banks are expected to have increased despite trade tensions, the Middle East conflict and broader economic uncertainty, but now face tougher tests as more consumers struggle to pay debts and a subdued housing market weighs on their core domestic business, Reuters reported.

A group of the world's leading central banks and more than 40 major commercial banks are to step up testing of one of the world's most ‌closely watched digital payments projects, as the race to upgrade - and dominate - the international financial architecture ‌heats up, Reuters reported. The Agora project, as it is known, is spearheaded by the Bank for International Settlements and involves the New York Federal Reserve ​as well as leading central banks from Europe, Korea, Mexico and Japan whose currencies account for the bulk of global payments.

French investment banker Matthieu Pigasse was angling to win the job of helping Venezuela restructure around $150 billion in unpaid debts and repair the country’s standing with investors around the world, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wall Street has been awaiting this chance ever since the Trump administration’s special operation in January to capture Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and bring him to New York on drug-trafficking charges.

Chinese officials are intensifying efforts to tax offshore trusts that hold shares in some Hong Kong-listed companies, clamping down on a structure that the country’s mega-rich have used to invest billions of dollars overseas, Bloomberg News reported. Authorities in provinces and cities including Jiangsu and Shenzhen have demanded the owners of these trusts report detailed financial information including investment gains from dividends and share disposals, according to people familiar with the matter.

China's industrial profits in April grew at the fastest pace since November 2023, despite financial pressures stemming from softening domestic demand and rising component costs exacerbated by ‌the Middle East crisis, Reuters reported. The latest data adds to signs of an uneven recovery, with the economy ‌largely losing momentum at the start of the second quarter. While exports have remained a rare bright spot, most other indicators have undershot ​expectations, leaving firms increasingly reliant on overseas markets for growth.

The British government sanctioned crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun’s global crypto exchange HTX on suspicion of supporting the Russian government, placing a spotlight on a billionaire who until recently was a key backer of the Trump family’s cryptocurrency businesses, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K. Foreign Office said that HTX provided financial services to two businesses strategically significant to authorities in Russia: a Kremlin-backed crypto network called A7, and a Moscow-based crypto exchange named Garantex. Both have been previously sanctioned by U.S. authorities.

When the Strait of Hormuz finally reopens, shipping companies will need to know which oil tankers get to start moving first, and whom to ask for the go-ahead, the New York Times reported. Vessels will need guidance on routes. And there’s the question of the potential threat of mines in the strait. The United States and Iran are moving closer to securing a deal to reopen the strait, and captains aboard the roughly 1,500 ships that have been stranded in the Persian Gulf for nearly three months are getting ready.

Tourism was booming when Sarah Foda began working at Caribbean Tours’ operations in Cuba a decade ago, with 84 employees shepherding thousands of foreign visitors each month to the island’s faded Spanish-colonial cities and turquoise beaches. With the Trump administration intensifying its squeeze on Cuba’s communist regime, the Swiss-owned company’s visitor numbers have plunged to about a dozen travelers a month. Caribbean Tours still employs 22 people on a reduced payroll to keep them afloat until the business can snap back—if it ever does, the Wall Street Journal reported.