Headlines

Bermuda-based captive insurer Northeastern Insurance Co. Ltd. has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, citing financial strain caused by the state's extension of the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases, InsuranceBusinessMag.com reported. According to court filings, Northeastern decided, in 2017, to stop underwriting new business and enter a runoff process. At the time, the company said it maintained adequate reserves.

A bus operator serving Nottingham and Nottinghamshire has proposed to enter an insolvency process as it faces "challenging trading conditions," BBC.com reported. Community Transport for Nottingham (CT4N), which runs more than 20 local services, announced on Wednesday it had proposed a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). If the CVA is approved by creditors, the company said it would be able to preserve the jobs of about 75 employees and continue trading.

China's Communist Party elite vowed on Thursday to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technological self-reliance, moves it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States, Reuters reported. As expected, the Party's Central Committee also promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people's livelihoods - long-standing goals that in recent years have been little more than an afterthought as China prioritised manufacturing and investment - without giving many details.

Shoppers all over the world are buying more stuff from China than ever before. Even Americans are, despite the rising cost of tariffs. The only people who aren’t, it seems, are those in China, the New York Times reported. That is at the heart of a very big problem for China’s top leadership as it tries to steer a weakening economy through the volatility of the trade war with the United States. China depends on the world’s consumers to keep its economy steady, a point that was made clear on Monday by its latest economic update.

South Korea’s central bank held its policy rate steady for a third straight meeting, reflecting caution over financial-stability risks and uncertainty over tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Korea on Thursday left its benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at 2.50%, as widely expected, preserving policy space while signaling that it is ready to act if needed. The BOK’s extended pause comes against a backdrop of continued household-debt growth in South Korea.

Motor vehicles and parts led retail sales increases for the month of August, according to new data from Statistics Canada, BNNBloomberg reported. For a third consecutive month, motor vehicle and parts dealerships showed an increase of 1.8 per cent. It was led by higher sales at new car dealers at a 2.3 per cent bump, followed by used car dealerships, which saw sales grow by 1.5 per cent. While auto sellers pressed the acceleration pedal in August, sales at gas stations and fuel vendors continued downhill with a decrease of two per cent.

Turkey’s central bank slowed the pace of rate cuts at its latest meeting, after inflation came in higher than expected in September, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Central Bank of Turkey cut its benchmark rate to 39.5% from 40.5%, it said Thursday. Money markets priced in a three-quarter-point rate cut, although with the possibility of a bigger, one-percentage-point cut, according to LSEG data. The bank previously cut rates by 2.5 percentage points and 3 percentage points in September and July, respectively.

The U.S.’s new sanctions hit at the core of Russia’s faltering war economy, bringing Washington and Europe into alignment in their pressure on Moscow for the first time since the start of the Trump administration, the Wall Street Journal reported. Analysts say the impact of blacklisting Rosneft and Lukoil—Russia’s biggest oil producers—will hinge on three things: how well they are enforced, the reaction of major markets in India and China, and whether Moscow can circumvent the measures. The new U.S. sanctions “mark the most material move to date by the U.S.

The European Union has agreed on a new raft of sanctions against Russia targeting its shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning its imports of liquefied natural gas, the Danish EU presidency announced Thursday, The Canadian Press reported. “Today is a good day for Europe and Ukraine,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement, as EU leaders were gathering for a summit in Brussels.

The IMF is warning that elevated stock valuations are putting both financial markets and the global economy at risk of some turbulence, BusinessInsider.com reported. "Valuation models indicate that risk asset prices are well above fundamentals, increasing the probability of disorderly corrections when adverse shocks occur," the organization said in its Global Financial Stability Report published this month. U.S. stocks in particular are highly valued, the IMF said. One measure the group cited is the S&P 500's 12-month forward PE ratio.