Japanese and U.S. finance chiefs meet on Thursday for high-stakes talks on exchange rates that have drawn market attention as a venue where Washington could pressure Tokyo to prop up the yen and help it reduce the huge U.S. trade deficit, Reuters reported. As the two countries proceed with separate bilateral talks on tariffs, the thorny currency rate topic has been set aside for Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss in Washington - the first face-to-face talks between the two. U.S.

Canadian retail sales fell by 0.4% in February from January at C$69.33 billion ($49.95 billion), on lower sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Sales likely increased 0.7% in March, the agency said in a flash estimate, Reuters reported. In February, sales were down in four of nine subsectors, representing 43.1% of retail trade. In volume terms, retail sales decreased by 0.4%. Read more.

Mexican lender Banorte will again consider a potential purchase of Banamex, Citi's one-time retail unit in the country which it split off last year, Banorte's CEO told analysts on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "There are a lot of moving pieces," CEO Marcos Ramirez said. "So we will watch closely what's going on and propose." Banorte had previously bowed out of the competition for Banamex in 2022, though Citi was ultimately unable to find a buyer for the unit.

Hudson's Bay Co. has stopped paying commission to hundreds of cosmeticians and fragrance advisers during liquidation sales, effectively reducing their salaries, CBC.ca reported. These workers, also known as beauty advisers, earn commission on products sold, on top of their base salary. Hudson's Bay notified the beauty advisers 12 days in advance that, starting on April 20, they would only receive base pay, according to a company-issued letter seen by CBC News. "Please note that this is a decision we have not taken lightly," the retailer stated in the letter.

The U.S. is moving forward with a plan to charge fees on Chinese ships calling at American ports, part of the Trump administration’s effort to counter China’s dominance in ocean shipping and revive the domestic maritime industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Thursday released the plan to charge steep fees on Chinese-owned and operated ships, and lower fees on Chinese-built vessels operated by non-Chinese carriers. Ships will be charged for each voyage to the U.S. and not for each call at a U.S.

A U.S. federal judge on Monday confirmed a $3.7 billion offer by Contrarian Funds' affiliate Red Tree Investments as the starting bid in an auction of shares in the parent of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum to pay creditors and bondholders, according to a court filing, Reuters reported. The offer had been recommended by a court officer overseeing the auction due to its certainty of closure. Read more.

The U.S. set new duties as high as 3,521% on solar imports from four Southeast Asian countries, delivering a win for domestic manufacturers while intensifying headwinds already threatening the country’s renewable power development, Bloomberg News reported. The duties announced Monday are the culmination of a yearlong trade probe that found solar manufacturers in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand were unfairly benefiting from government subsidies and selling exports to the US at rates lower than the cost of production.

The United States sells more soybeans to China, by value, than any other single product. Last year, that amounted to more than 27 million metric tons, worth $12.8 billion, or about 9 cents of every dollar of goods the United States sold to China, the New York Times reported. But with the enormous tariffs erected between the two countries over the past two weeks, those sales are likely to suffer soon. That is bad news for the American farmers who grow soybeans and the Chinese chicken and hog farmers who buy them — and potentially very good news for the nation ready to step in: Brazil.

China has warned countries against making trade deals with the U.S. that could hurt Beijing’s interests, the Wall Street Journal reported. “China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” the Ministry of Commerce said Monday, adding that it would respond “resolutely” with reciprocal countermeasures should such a situation arise. The ministry also said China is willing to strengthen solidarity and coordination with all parties, work together to respond to challenges, and oppose unilateral bullying.

China's state-backed funds are pulling back from investing in the funds of U.S.-headquartered private capital firms amid an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies, the Financial Times reported. Some of the Chinese funds are also seeking to be excluded from investments in U.S. companies made by private equity firms based elsewhere, the report, which cited seven private equity executives with knowledge of the matter, said.