Cineworld Group Plc plunged as much as 40% after a court ordered the world’s second-largest cinema chain to pay nearly $1 billion in damages -- more than its entire market value -- over an aborted takeover bid, Bloomberg News reported. A Canadian court ordered the British company to pay the money on Tuesday after it scrapped a plan to buy Toronto-based Cineplex Inc. as the pandemic forced entertainment venues to close. The $1.6 billion deal would have made Cineworld North America’s largest movie-theater operator.

The Bank of Canada will likely need to lower rates to their effective lower bound (ELB) more often in the future and will therefore have to use alternative stimulus to a greater extent to tackle shocks, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Macklem, in a virtual speech to a business audience, said the low global interest rate environment meant the bank would have to rely on tools like forward guidance and quantitative easing more often going forward. "A lower neutral interest rate means we are likely to need to use these policy tools more often in the future.

Parliament has passed amendments to the Companies Act that reform Cayman’s restructuring regime for insolvent companies, the Cayman Compass reported. The changes introduce a formal restructuring procedure under the supervision of a restructuring officer outside the traditional winding-up process. Distressed companies can now apply to the Grand Court for a restructuring officer to be appointed when the company is unable to pay its debt and aims to present an alternative arrangement or compromise to its creditors.

Canada dramatically hardened its tone with Washington in a dispute over proposed U.S. credits for electric vehicles on Friday, threatening to slap tariffs on a range of American goods unless the matter was resolved, Reuters reported. In a letter to senior members of the U.S. Senate, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Trade Minister Mary Ng also said Canada was ready to launch a dispute settlement process under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal.

In the aftermath of disastrous floods last month that cut off Canada's main port, Ottawa will convene a summit of industry figures and shippers to discuss strengthening supply chains, a government source said on Sunday, Reuters reported. The event will take place in early 2022. Canadian transportation supply chains have been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and the floods and landslides in the Pacific Coast province of British Columbia.

Mexican annual inflation accelerated faster than expected in November to its highest level in over two decades, official data showed on Thursday, reinforcing bets the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate again when it meets next week, Bloomberg News reported. Figures from national statistics agency INEGI showed inflation in Latin America's No. 2 economy jumped to 7.37% last month from 6.24% in October. That compared with the consensus forecast of a Reuters poll for 7.22%.

Canada’s national pension fund struck its first partnership to build and rent out single-family homes in the U.S., joining a rush to capitalize on a housing shortage, Bloomberg News reported. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will join with Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, the largest property manager in the U.S., to build and acquire communities of single-family rental properties there, according to a statement Wednesday. CPPIB will own 95% of the $840 million joint venture and Greystar 5%. The surging price of homeownership in the U.S.

Petroleos Mexicanos could end up spending about $1.6 billion to take over Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Deer Park refinery, more than twice the price announced in May, even as its finances are so dismal the government is injecting billions of dollars into the state oil producer, Bloomberg News reported. Pemex, as the company is known, has requested about $1.6 billion to acquire the Houston-area refinery, including a capitalization from Mexico’s National Infrastructure Fund and a bridge loan from commercial banks, according to Pemex documents seen by Bloomberg.

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday held its key overnight interest rate unchanged, as expected, and said inflation was broadening even as it warned that the Omicron coronavirus variant has created "renewed uncertainty," Reuters reported The central bank, in a regular rate decision, left its key overnight interest rate at 0.25% and maintained guidance that economic slack would be absorbed in the "middle quarters" of 2022, setting the stage for a first rate hike as soon as April.

Petroleos Mexicanos will sell between $700 million and $1 billion in dollar-denominated bonds as part of a government effort to shore up the state oil giant’s finances, Deputy Finance Minister Gabriel Yorio said, Bloomberg News reported. The issuance is part of a government rescue plan announced earlier Monday that includes a $3.5 billion cash injection, which the producer will use to pay down obligations and embark on a series of bond buybacks. The overall deal will result in Pemex’s net debt falling by about $3.5 billion, Yorio said by telephone.