The Bank of Canada is widely expected to keep its policy interest rate on hold at 2.25% on Wednesday but economists and money markets are divided over where Canada's monetary policy cycle is headed for the rest of the year due to economic uncertainty, Reuters reported. From December, money markets have started betting on odds of a rate hike late this year after a long pause for most of the year. But some economists differ given the uncertainty around the upcoming renegotiations of the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) free trade pact.
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Resources Per Country
- Anguilla
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bermuda
- British Virgin Islands
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Montserrat
- Netherlands Antilles
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Puerto Rico
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United States
- United States Virgin Islands
Canadians remain cautious with their spending, with retailers registering a pullback in sales for the final month 2025 that rounds out a year of choppy trade, the Wall Street Journal reported. Retail sales in November increased 1.3% from the month, only for sales to drop an estimated 0.5% in December, based on an advance tally of receipts by the national data agency. November’s increase, while the strongest in five months and modestly sharper than the 1.2% rise in sales that economists had expected, followed weakened sales the previous two months, including a 0.3% slide in October.
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Chief justice Geoffrey B. Morawetz of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario is set to retire on May 15 after nearly seven years in the role, LawTimesNews.com reported. Morawetz has been a judge for over 21 years, having been appointed to the bench in 2005. For four years, he led the team on Toronto’s Commercial List, which handles complex commercial issues. He became Toronto’s regional senior justice on December 18, 2013.
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U.S. control of Venezuela's oil exports has ensnared barrels that had been servicing debt to China, lining up another potential showdown between the two superpowers that could further complicate the South American country's path out of default, Reuters reported. Around a tenth of Venezuela's $150 billion foreign debt pile is estimated to be loans from China that the OPEC member was paying in oil cargoes — until the U.S. seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. Debt experts said the ramifications of China's claim on the cargoes and any clash with the U.S.
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The U.S. is in talks with Chevron Corp., other crude producers and the world’s biggest oilfield service providers about a plan to quickly revive output in Venezuela at a fraction of the estimated $100 billion cost for a complete rebuilding, Bloomberg News reported. Oilfield contractors such as SLB Ltd., Baker Hughes Co. and Halliburton Co. would focus their initial efforts on repairing or replacing damaged or outdated equipment and refreshing older drilling sites, according to senior administration officials who asked not to be identified discussing internal plans.
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President Donald Trump threatened Canada with 100% tariffs against all its exports to the US if it makes a trade deal with China, escalating tensions between the U.S. and its northern neighbor, Bloomberg News reported. Trump, referring to Prime Minister Mark Carney as “Governor Carney,” said the Canadian leader was “sorely mistaken” for opening up his country to more business from China, including a recent deal allowing an increase in Chinese electric vehicle exports.
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The Canadian dollar extended its weekly gain against the U.S. dollar on Friday as the greenback posted broad-based declines and domestic data showed that retail sales rose in November, Reuters reported. The loonie was trading 0.5% higher at 1.3715 per U.S. dollar, or 72.91 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest intraday level since January 2 at 1.3705. For the week, the currency was up 1.5%, its biggest weekly gain since May. Investor angst in the currency markets this week over intensifying geopolitical tensions has largely been borne by the U.S. dollar.
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Air Antilles, a regional French airline serving the Caribbean islands, has officially filed for bankruptcy protection (cessation de paiements) at the Pointe‑à‑Pitre mixed commercial court in Guadeloupe, after failing to meet financial obligations, Aeromorning reported. In an internal letter to employees dated Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, Louis Mussington, Chairman of Air Antilles’ board of directors (and President of the Territorial Authority of Saint‑Martin), announced the filing of the cessation de paiements declaration.
Global markets shifted abruptly into a defensive posture this week, with U.S. equities dropping over 2% amid a dual shock of fiscal instability in Japan and renewed trade war tensions between the U.S. and Europe, according to a market commentary published by QCP on Wednesday, Blockspace reported. Bitcoin has fallen below $90,000, failing to hold its recent reclamation of the $97,000 level as the cryptocurrency struggles to find footing.
Lawmakers in the European Parliament agreed to put off work on the European Union’s trade agreement with the U.S. as President Trump continues his push take over Greenland, the Wall Street Journal reported. “By threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of an EU member state and by using tariffs as a coercive instrument, the U.S. is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-U.S. trade relations,” Bernd Lange, chair of the parliament’s international trade committee, said in a statement Wednesday.
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