By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada posted a trade surplus of C$3.13 billion ($2.45 billion) in November, the largest in over 13 years, with record exports offsetting the impact of floods in British Columbia, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a November surplus of C$2.03 billion. Exports and imports hit…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week and could increase further in the coming weeks amid disruptions from soaring COVID-19 infections. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 207,000 for the week ended Jan. 1, the Labor Department said on Thursday….
By Shariq Khan and Maiya Keidan (Reuters) – Low interest rates, and strong debt and equity markets that propelled Canadian mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to an all-time high in 2021 would underpin robust dealmaking this year too, M&A bankers said, though another record was unlikely. Pent-up demand for dealmaking from 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic…
By Tim McLaughlin (Reuters) – A deadly form of soot pollution from U.S. refineries has gone unregulated for decades because of a dispute between the U.S. oil industry and federal environmental officials over how to measure it, according to documents from the Environmental Protection Agency reviewed by Reuters. The delay in addressing so-called condensable fine…
(Reuters) – Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc on Thursday posted a profit for the first quarter versus a year-ago loss, as strong demand for COVID-19 vaccinations and testing buoyed sales at its pharmacy stores. Net income attributable to Walgreens was $3.58 billion, or $4.13 per share, in the quarter ended Nov. 30, compared to a loss…
(Reuters) -China’s copyright authority said on Thursday digital music platforms are not allowed to sign exclusive copyright agreements except in special circumstances, amid a regulatory crackdown on monopolistic behaviour in the country’s private sector. The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) gave the order on Thursday at a meeting in Beijing with influential digital music…
By Ahmad Ghaddar LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices rose sharply on Thursday, extending a rally from the previous session, on escalating unrest in OPEC+ oil producer Kazakhstan and supply outages in Libya. The global benchmark Brent crude futures rose $1.09, or 1.4%, to $81.89 a barrel, by 1054 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures…
By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) – Stock markets were deep in the red and some key government bond yields climbed to their highest in years on Thursday after the Federal Reserve signalled the possibility of faster-than-expected U.S. rate hikes and stimulus withdrawal. Both Asia and Europe’s bourses fell heavily after Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged…
By Saikat Chatterjee LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar resumed its climb towards a recent 14-month high on Wednesday as minutes of the latest Federal Reserve policy meeting fuelled expectations of a U.S. rate increase as early as March. The Fed’s December meeting minutes showed officials had discussed shrinking the U.S. central bank’s overall asset…
By Mathieu Rosemain PARIS (Reuters) -France’s data privacy watchdog CNIL said on Thursday it had fined Alphabet’s Google a record 150 million euros ($169 million) for making it difficult for internet users to refuse online trackers known as cookies. Meta Platforms’ Facebook was also fined 60 million euros for the same reason, the CNIL said….
