After months of underperforming the broader market, Canada’s Big Six banks are likely to continue struggling as expenses and loan-loss provisions rise and consumer finances deteriorate, Bloomberg News reported. Higher interest rates are expected to hurt lenders’ fiscal third-quarter earnings when they begin to report Thursday. Inflation data on both sides of the border have ratcheted up bets that central banks could raise rates further still, which would further erode spending power and borrowing demand.

Canadian June retail sales grew by 0.1% from the previous month driven mostly by car sales, data showed on Wednesday, a sign of weak consumer spending that could convince the central bank that interest rate hikes are sinking in, Reuters reported. The slight June gain was led by increases at motor vehicle and parts dealers as well as gasoline stations and fuel vendors, Statistics Canada said. Excluding sales of cars and car parts, retail sales declined 0.8% in June. Economists had forecast June sales would be flat and that they would rise 0.3% excluding autos.

Binance is helping Russians move money abroad, potentially adding to its sprawling legal problems in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. The cryptocurrency giant, led by founder Changpeng Zhao, joined many other major international companies early last year in scaling back its business in Russia, one of its largest markets by trading volume at the time. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Binance said it had stopped working there and was implementing Western sanctions requirements. It restricted trading on its platform in Russia.

Canada's big bank results are expected to bring to light a number of challenges as lenders set aside more funds for bad loans in a tough economy that has also led to a slowdown in dealmaking and forced borrowers to rethink about new mortgages, Reuters reported. The big six banks, which control a majority of the market in the country, have had to brace for macroeconomic uncertainties and build reserves while also ensuring they have enough capital to meet new regulatory requirements in case of uncertainties.

At a moment when the U.S. is trying to reset its tense relationship with China, states across the country are leaning into anti-Chinese sentiment and crafting or enacting sweeping rules aimed at severing economic ties with Beijing, the New York Times reported. The measures, in places like Florida, Utah and South Carolina, are part of a growing political push to make the United States less economically dependent on China and to limit Chinese investment over concerns that it poses a national security risk.

London-based digital-first healthcare platform Babylon Health has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States for two subsidiaries — Babylon Healthcare and Babylon Inc. — as it shuts down core U.S. operations, according to documents filed on Aug. 9 in a Delaware bankruptcy court, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The filing comes shortly after a planned combination Babylon's core operating subsidiaries with MindMaze, digital neurotherapy company, collapsed.

Malaysia may pursue lawsuits against Goldman Sachs over the U.S. investment bank's role in the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1MDB, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview with CNBC, Reuters reported. Goldman settled with Malaysia in 2020 by agreeing to pay $2.5 billion in cash and guaranteeing the return of $1.4 billion in assets to the country in exchange for dropping all criminal charges against the bank. But Anwar, who came to power in late 2022, said earlier this year that Malaysia was re-evaluating the deal as the settlement sum was small.

When global inflation surged in 2021, many of Latin America’s central bankers were the first to raise interest rates, moving months before the Federal Reserve began tightening. Recalling how hyperinflation topped 3,000% in some countries in the 1980s, central-bank economists from Brasília to Lima to Mexico City knew all too well the damage that soaring prices could cause. Now, Latin America is again at the forefront of the cycle, cutting rates as inflation comes back down, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday said it will set preliminary anti-dumping duties on tin-plated steel from Canada, Germany and China, in a move to shield domestic steelmakers that will prompt warnings of higher prices for cans made from the steel and the foods, paint and other products they contain, Reuters reported. The department said it will propose preliminary anti-dumping duties of 122.5% on tin mill steel imported from China, 7.02% on imports from Germany and 5.29% on imports from Canada. A formal Federal Register notice is expected later on Thursday.

Investment in Canada's financial technology sector was reduced to less than half in the first six months of 2023 from last year, according to a report from accounting firm KPMG on Thursday, Reuters reported. Startup valuations across the technology spectrum have been hit as high-interest rates and worries over a looming economic slowdown sour investor appetite, leading to a shift towards safer investments with greater focus on profitability and away from cash-burning firms.