Headlines

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Tuesday the Biden administration is actively considering adding new Chinese companies to the government's economic blacklist as it investigates what it calls efforts by China to evade U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported. The Commerce Department's Entity List restricts access to U.S. exports. Raimondo told reporters the administration was working to "get information around bad actors in China and adding those companies to the Entity List ...

Global growth in factory activity slowed in May as China's strict coronavirus curbs and Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted supply chains and dampened demand, adding to woes for businesses already struggling with surging raw material prices, Reuters reported. Manufacturing growth slowed last month in economies as diverse as France, Japan to Malaysia, business surveys showed on Wednesday, illustrating the challenge policymakers face in trying to combat inflation while not stifling anaemic economic activity.

Comair Ltd., operator of IAG SA-owned British Airways trips in South Africa, grounded all flights after running out of funds and is awaiting further investment, Bloomberg News reported. The carrier, which also runs the domestic low-cost airline Kulula, halted all ticket sales with immediate effect, according to a statement late Tuesday evening. The company’s administrators “believe the funding may be secured,” Comair said.

The Bank of Canada took another aggressive step in its hiking cycle, raising its policy interest rate by 50 basis points for a second straight time and warning that it may act “more forcefully” if needed to tackle inflation, Bloomberg News reported. Wednesday’s decision, which brings the benchmark overnight rate to 1.5%, was delivered in a hawkish statement that aired worries about price pressures intensifying and becoming entrenched at elevated levels.

Stablecoins that are meant to be an alternative to traditional currencies aren’t steady enough for widespread use by consumers, a Bank of England official said, Bloomberg News reported. Andrew Hauser, executive director for markets at the UK central bank, said the digital currencies such as TerraUSD and Tether lack real-time information about their value and details about how they maintain convertibility. “Stable they are not,” Hauser said Wednesday in a text of remarks prepared for a panel hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

British sporting goods billionaire Mike Ashley swooped on another failing retailer, snapping up online brand Missguided after it entered UK insolvency proceedings, BusinessofFashion.com reported. Ashley’s Frasers Group Plc agreed to pay £20 million ($25 million) for the intellectual property of Missguided and related companies, according to a statement Wednesday. Missguided was founded in 2009 and sells clothes online to young women, targeting them via its 9.2 million Instagram followers.

Drugmaker Mallinckrodt PLC has obtained support among unsecured bondholders to fund its exit from chapter 11 after a chilly reception from the leveraged credit market, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Ireland-based company had been struggling to complete a financing deal needed to emerge from bankruptcy and has been working with Morgan Stanley to find investors.

A judge has again granted permission to extend the stay of proceedings protecting Laurentian University from its creditors, this time until Sept. 30, Sudbury.com reported. Laurentian has been undergoing insolvency restructuring for well over a year now after declaring insolvency and filing for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (or CCAA) in early 2021.

Canada's economic growth was not as robust as expected in the first quarter, dragged by lower export volumes, official data showed on Tuesday, though activity was bang-on central bank projections and unlikely to sway plans for an oversized rate hike in June, Reuters reported. The Canadian economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.1% in the first quarter, below analyst predictions of 5.4% but in line with the Bank of Canada's forecast of 3.0%, Statistics Canada data showed.

Brazil's consolidated public sector posted a primary budget surplus of 38.88 billion reais ($8.18 billion) in April, the best result since the central bank series started in 2002, figures showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In the 12 months to April, the primary surplus as a percentage of GDP reached 1.52%, up from 1.37% in the previous month. The figure was boosted by gains reported in tax collection, helped by the upturn in economic activity and a jump in fuel prices.