North America

The world sorely needs more grains and Canada has a bin-busting harvest this year -- but shippers fear there aren’t enough rail cars to transport it all, Bloomberg News reported. There were almost 2,400 outstanding grain-car orders for the nation’s two major carriers, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., according to the latest data from Ag Transport Coalition. “We have to make up these orders,” Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Winnipeg-based Western Grain Elevator Association, said Tuesday in a phone interview.

Canadian manufacturing activity contracted for a second straight month in September as higher borrowing costs and an uncertain economic outlook contributed to a drop in new orders, but the pace of decline lessened, data showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to a seasonally adjusted 49.8 in September after falling to 48.7 in August, its lowest level since June 2020. A reading below 50 shows contraction in the sector.

Mexican officials on Monday announced the details of a new deal with companies to halt rising food prices, doubling down on a collaborative effort with the private sector as inflation hovers at a 22-year high, Reuters reported. More than a dozen foodmakers and retailers are part of the plan, which will waive certain regulatory requirements, Mexican Finance Minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O said.

Laurentian University plans to ask permission to finally make public letters between LU and the province that were sealed by the courts at the beginning of its insolvency in early 2021, Sudbury.com reported. On Sept. 14, the university’s creditors voted narrowly in favour of Laurentian University’s plan of arrangement, allowing Laurentian to clear a major hurdle to finally being able to exit creditor protection. A plan of arrangement is essentially a plan put forward by an insolvent organization to pay out its creditors, and it must be approved by these creditors.

The commercial hub of Delaware is blocking startup ventures with past ties to Russia from maintaining their corporate standing in the state, ensnaring some tech firms that say they have little or no current connection to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported.

The Bank of Mexico hiked its key interest rate on Thursday by 75 basis points to a record 9.25%, in line with forecasts and following in the footsteps of the U.S. Federal Reserve's own recent three-quarter of a percentage point increase, Reuters reported.

The Bank of Canada will begin publishing a minutes-like summary of deliberations by officials after each policy decision in an effort to enhance transparency as it faces one of the most severe tests of its credibility, Bloomberg News reported. The move comes in response to a review by the International Monetary Fund, released on Wednesday, of the central bank’s transparency practices. The Bank of Canada said it will produce summaries roughly two weeks after each policy meeting, starting with the Jan. 25 decision.

Inflation is too high in Canada, so the Bank of Canada needs to increase interest rates to slow spending and give the economy time to catch up, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Monday in a video posted by the central bank on Twitter, Reuters reported. "Inflation is too high," Macklem said in a video tagged #AskTheBoC, echoing remarks made earlier this month after the central bank hiked its policy rate by 75-basis points to 3.25%.

Suncor Energy Inc. is pushing ahead with a bond buyback as oil prices near this year’s lows amid recession worries, Bloomberg News reported. Calgary-based Suncor plans to buy up to C$1.75 billion ($1.27 billion) of securities from 10 series of outstanding notes in US and Canadian dollars, the company said in a statement Monday. Cenovus Energy Inc., another large Canadian oil company, did a similar offer earlier this month.

Laurentian University expects to ask for creditor protection to be extended to Nov. 30 at an upcoming hearing, according to court documents filed on Friday, Sudbury.com reported. The “stay of proceedings” protecting the insolvent university from its creditors currently expires Sept. 30. Laurentian University has been undergoing court-supervised restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (or CCAA) since declaring insolvency in February 2021.