Canada Post strike, X’s mass exodus and a rival bid for Japanese 7-Eleven owner: Business and investing stories for Nov. 17Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of the Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.after contract negotiations failed between the national postal service and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Vanmala Subramaniam reports.
Credit-card debt in America is at record highs, testing claims about the strength of the U.S. economy. Total credit-card debt climbed to US$1.17-trillion in the third quarter, rising by US$24-billion from the previous quarter, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Other types of consumer debt, such as auto loans and home equity lines of credit, also jumped higher. In Canada, a surge in credit-card debt is playing out in much the same way.
Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is facing a new obstacle in its audacious bid to buy the Japanese-owned 7-Eleven convenience store chain – a rival bid. Japan’s Seven & i Holdings, owner of 7-Eleven, is weighingfrom a member of its founding Ito family. The bid is said to be worth around US$58-billion, considerably more than Couche-Tard’s US$47-billion offer, and is seen as an indication of how Japan’s corporate elite are closing ranks against foreign acquisitions of Japanese companies.