Headlines

Creditors in U.S. chipmaker Wolfspeed offered roughly $600M to refinance a large convertible bond coming due in 2026, to pre-empt a potential bankruptcy filing, The Financial Times reported. The offer comes after Wolfspeed announced last week that it was considering a bankruptcy filing after negotiations to restructure the bond reached an impasse.

Hudson’s Bay is due to return to an Ontario court today for the first time in roughly two weeks to seek a reprieve from the hundreds of businesses it owes money, the Canadian Press reported. The department store is expected to use the Tuesday morning appearance to ask Judge Peter Osborne to stretch the period of time it is protected from its creditors to July 31 rather than ending May 15. The extension request comes as the business, which holds the title of Canada’s oldest company, appears to be hurtling toward a new future.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has dismissed an insolvency petition against PepsiCo India Holdings after observing that provisions of IBC cannot be turned into a debt-recovery proceeding, the Times of India reported. The appellate insolvency tribunal has upheld the earlier order passed by the Chandigarh bench of the National Company Law Tribunal, which had rejected SNJ Synthetic's plea.

India is looking at levying import duties on some products made in the United States to counter Washington's tariffs on steel and aluminium products, a document submitted to the World Trade Organization shows, Reuters reported. "The proposed suspension of concessions or other obligations takes the form of an increase in tariffs on selected products originating in the United States," the document dated May 12 said.

The United States will cut the "de minimis" tariff for low-value items imported from China, a White House executive order said on Monday, further de-escalating a potentially damaging trade war between the world's two largest economies, Reuters reported. The tariff relief, which affects big Chinese e-commerce players including Shein and Temu, follows a deal between Beijing and Washington to unwind most of the duties imposed on each other's goods since early April, after weekend talks in Geneva.

UK wage growth slowed down in the three months to March 2025, as businesses braced for national insurance increases which came into effect at the beginning of April, EuroNews.com reported. Regular pay excluding bonuses in the UK grew by 5.6% on an annual basis to £671 (€798.3) a week in the three months to March 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was below the 5.9% seen in the previous period, while being less than analyst estimates of 5.7% as well.

The European Central Bank will stand by its aggressive stimulus policy of the last decade in a strategy review, side-stepping calls for self-criticism after a bout of high inflation and sizeable losses, several ECB policymakers told Reuters. The review, which began in March, will address some big questions about the way the ECB works, including whether massive bond purchases, negative interest rates and giving guidance on the future path for rates remain good policy tools.

Bank of Japan board members have signaled their intention for further rate hikes while citing the need to stay vigilant due to the potential economic impacts from U.S. tariff measures, according to a summary of opinions from their April 30 to May 1 meeting, Bloomberg News reported. "The bank’s stance to continue to raise the policy interest rate is unchanged” given low real rates and the outlook for its price goal to be met, one of the nine board members said at the gathering, according to the summary released Tuesday, which doesn’t disclose speakers’ identities.

President Trump has defended his decision to introduce tariffs on goods from other countries by arguing that it will lead companies to shift production to the United States, bringing back jobs, the New York Times reported. For German companies, which have been producing their goods in the United States since the late 1800s, such arguments ring hollow. Thousands of German companies already have factories in the United States, accounting for 12 percent of the country’s foreign investments. Automakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz have long had plants in the United States.

The number of corporate bankruptcies with debts of at least ¥10 million in Japan totaled 828 in April, the highest level in 11 years for the reporting month, amid inflation and rising labor costs, Tokyo Shoko Research said on Monday, the Japan Times reported. The monthly figure rose 5.7% from a year before. More failures were seen mainly among smaller companies with weak business bases as their revenue was squeezed by rising prices and higher labor costs amid labor shortages.