North America

The U.S. Treasury moved to block U.S. investors from making purchases of Russian debt in secondary markets, an apparent expansion from existing policy that only prohibited purchases of newly issued Russian government debt and some Russian corporate debts, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In new guidance, the Treasury Department said U.S.

Prices in Canada are rising at their quickest pace in 31 years, but that is not yet feeding in to a wage spiral, Canada's budgetary watchdog said on Tuesday, with inflation still expected to return to target in coming years, Reuters reported. Canadian consumers and businesses expect inflation to creep up in the short term, but longer-term expectations remain anchored, said Yves Giroux, Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), in a statement. "Financial market participants largely do not see the current high-inflation environment as permanent," he said.

The Mexican Auto Industry Association (AMIA) expects a slow recovery in the supply of semiconductor chips to the country, an essential component for the production of vehicles, the group's director said at a news conference on Monday, Reuters reported. "We're seeing that there will be a recovery but it won't be at the end of this year, nor during the next," AMIA director Fausto Cuevas said. Mexican automotive production and exports in May rose compared to the same month a year earlier, data from national statistics agency (INEGI) showed earlier on Monday.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sunday that President Joe Biden has asked his team to look at the option of lifting some tariffs on China that were put into place by former President Donald Trump, to combat the current high inflation, Reuters reported. "We are looking at it. In fact, the president has asked us on his team to analyze that. And so we are in the process of doing that for him and he will have to make that decision," Raimondo told CNN in an interview on Sunday when asked about whether the Biden administration was weighing lifting tariffs on China to ease inflation.

Lessor Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) has emerged from Chapter 11 restructuring process, having eliminated nearly $4.1 billion of debt, Aerotime Hub reported. As part of its restructuring process, the lessor increased its liquidity with access to $537 million in additional capital to fund operations. In December 2021, NAC filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. In April 2022, NAC received approval for its restructuring plan from the Bankruptcy Court.

The Bank of Canada indicated that persistent price pressures are making it more likely policymakers will need to raise borrowing costs to contractionary levels in order to keep inflation expectations anchored, Bloomberg News reported. In a speech a day after the central bank raised its benchmark overnight rate by a half percentage point to 1.5%, Deputy Governor Paul Beaudry gave new guidance Thursday on how high borrowing costs could rise. The policy rate may now go to the top, or even above, what the Bank of Canada considers its “neutral range,” estimated at between 2% to 3%.

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 ...

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.

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.