Headlines

A company that was aiming to build its first small modular nuclear reactor in New Brunswick is putting some of its assets up for sale as its future in the province is increasingly in doubt, CBC.ca reported. Moltex Energy Canada is selling its engineering designs, patents, software, intellectual property, modelling data and other assets to a new company looking to sell reactors elsewhere. British Columbia-based Nuclea Energy Inc. is offering Moltex $11.5 million — a small fraction of what taxpayers have poured into the Saint John company in the last decade.

Saskatchewan-based Monette Farms has filed for protection from creditors to reorganize nearly $900 million in total secured debt, according to court documents filed by the farm's owner, Darrel Monette, requesting a court to supervise an insolvency restructuring process, DTNPF.com reported. Monette Farms is one of the largest farming operations in North America with 350,000 acres that encompass both Canada and the U.S.

Japan likely spent around $34.5 billion Thursday in its first currency intervention to prop up the yen since July 2024, according to a Bloomberg analysis of central bank accounts. The scale of intervention was probably around ¥5.4 trillion, based on a comparison of Bank of Japan accounts released Friday and money broker forecasts. In 2024, authorities spent an average of ¥3.8 trillion on four occasions to support the yen. This was the first intervention under the direction of Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama and the first since Sanae Takaichi became prime minister.

The world’s leading central bankers are stuck, the New York Times reported. In stately succession last week, policymakers in Tokyo, Washington, London and Frankfurt decided that despite long-stated intentions to shift short-term interest rates, this was not the time to take action. In each case, they concluded that they had better just leave short-term interest rates alone. The central banks all face a gigantic and imponderable problem.

U.S. President Donald Trump said ‌on Friday he would increase tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union to 25%, saying the bloc had not complied with its trade deal with Washington, Reuters reported. "Based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing ​Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States," he wrote in a ​social media post. "It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce Cars and Trucks in ⁠U.S.A.

South Korea’s exports surged again in April, driven by semiconductor shipments, signaling resilience in the trade-dependent economy despite geopolitical risks stemming from the Middle East conflict, the Wall Street Journal reported. Semiconductor shipments, which account for about a quarter of the country’s total exports, nearly tripled from a year earlier on strong demand from global technology companies building artificial-intelligence infrastructure.

Mexico’s economy shrunk in the first quarter in the latest economic setback for President Claudia Sheinbaum and despite her efforts to boost investment to stimulate growth, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product fell 0.8% in the January-to-March period compared to the prior three months, the largest fall in a quarter since late 2024. From a year ago, GDP was nearly flat, up only 0.1%, landing under the 0.7% estimate and down from the prior revised print of 1.6% growth.

Japan has signed a $2.2 billion loan agreement for the first batch of ​projects under its $550 billion U.S. investment ‌pledge, kicking off financing tied to a trade deal that cut U.S. tariffs on Japanese ​imports to 15%, Reuters reported. State-owned Japan Bank for ​International Cooperation said on Friday it would ⁠provide about a third of the $2.2 ​billion financing, with the rest provided by ​commercial banks.

Saddled by billions in crushing debt owed to Beijing, the Zambian government helped a Chinese-owned mining giant cover up one of the worst mining pollution incidents in the country’s history, according to an investigation by a U.S. House Select Committee on China, the Wall Street Journal reported.

After spending recent weeks on life support, LIV Golf has lost the funding of its Saudi backers, the Wall Street Journal reported. LIV plans to tell players and staff by Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will no longer bankroll the circuit after this season, according to people familiar with the matter. The move sounds the death knell for the upstart that sowed chaos in professional golf by plowing billions into the sport and poaching A-list players. The writing had been on the wall for nearly a month.