National Business

CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. has taken another step toward streamlining its business, signing a deal to sell its offshore assets in the North Sea to Equinor UK Ltd. in an agreement valued at about $1.2 billion.

TORONTO — Greater Toronto Area home prices fell almost 18 per cent from last February — the largest year-over-year drop on record — as the number of properties sold was halved, the region's real estate board said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is pausing construction of its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history and shifting landscape of remote work .

TORONTO — Indigo Books & Music Inc. revealed this week that a massive systems outage it's been dealing with for almost a month was triggered by ransomware.

CALGARY — Parkland Corp. says it will not go ahead with its plan to build a stand-alone renewable diesel complex at its refinery in Burnaby, B.C.

TORONTO — Martinrea International Inc. reported a profit of $46.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of nearly $9.7 million a year ago as its revenue rose more than 20 per cent.

OTTAWA — One year after the Bank of Canada's aggressive rate hike cycle began, economists widely expect the central bank will stick to its plan of holding its key interest rate steady at its next scheduled announcement.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong firefighters battled a huge blaze Friday that broke out overnight at a construction site in a popular shopping district and forced 170 people in nearby buildings to evacuate.

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher Friday after a Federal Reserve official raised hopes the U.S. central bank might not step up its anti-inflation fight as much as feared. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — “If I hadn’t been a girl, I’d have been a drag queen.” Dolly Parton has uttered those words famously and often.