Washington and Beijing are talking again. The test now is whether they can settle into a new normal that avoids upending the global economy — or fall back into a cycle of acrimony and retaliation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen heads to China on Thursday through Sunday to meet with senior government officials, her department said. The trip comes as tensions over trade, technology and Taiwan prompt both countries to reconsider the deep commercial and investment ties that have defined the relationship for decades.

A pair of central bank decisions next week will shape the outlook for a wobbly global economy that the World Bank warns in a downbeat new assessment is battling stubbornly high inflation amid the pandemic’s aftermath and the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported. The gloomy forecast arrives days after one threat to global growth was eliminated when President Biden signed legislation Saturday to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avert a potentially catastrophic government default.

The Canadian dollar weakened to a three-week low against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday as Wall Street stocks fell and data showed Canada's trade balance swinging to a surprise deficit, Reuters reported. The loonie was trading 0.6% lower at 1.3358 to the greenback, or 74.86 U.S. cents, after touching its weakest intraday level since June 13 at 1.3369. "We had a dreadful trade number," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex LLC.

Cineworld Group is looking at Eduardo Acuna, who runs the Americas operations of Mexico's Cinepolis, as a potential candidate to take the helm at the embattled British cinema chain operator when it emerges from bankruptcy proceedings, Sky News reported. It is not clear whether Acuna was formally in the frame to take the job or how quickly Cineworld's new owners were seeking to make an appointment, the report said.

From Melbourne to Manchester to Miami, people are struggling under the weight of hefty price increases for the things they buy each day, the New York Times reported. The worst spike in inflation that many advanced economies have seen in decades underscores the global forces driving prices higher, namely the disruptions set in motion by the coronavirus pandemic. The stakes are high for policymakers around the world, who are facing similar problems.

MSCI's global equities index lost ground on Wednesday after weaker-than-expected overseas data and as investors monitored a heating up of American-Chinese trade tensions while they awaited upcoming U.S. economic data and second-quarter earnings, Reuters reported. Investors shrugged off U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes released on Wednesday that showed a Fed united in its June meeting decision to hold interest rates steady to buy time to assess whether further hikes would be needed. Minutes also showed most members expecting more policy tightening eventually.