The United States and Canada have wrangled for decades over trade, poking each other interminably over sore spots like Canadian softwood lumber imports and U.S. access to Canada's protected dairy market.

Somehow the two neighbors still managed to remain friends, allies — and trading partners. Canadian soldiers fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan after 9/11. The 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border is undefended, and nearly 330,000 people and $2 billion dollars' worth of goods cross it every day; 800,000 Canadians live in the United States.

Shares were mixed in Europe and Asia on Monday after U.S. stocks edged back from their all-time high following a weaker than expected report on the U.S. economy.

Oil prices also were mixed.

Japan's economy grew an annual rate of 1.1% in the April-June quarter even as private consumption stayed flat and the growth of exports declined, according to government data released Monday.

Japan 's real GDP, or gross domestic product, the sum value of nation's goods and services, grew at a seasonally adjusted rate of 0.3% from the first quarter to second quarter of this 2026, according to Cabinet Office data.

Iraq's average daily oil exports since the beginning of August are the highest since the outbreak of the Middle East war between Iran and the United States, which has choked off the Strait of Hormuz, the oil ministry said Friday.

Iraqi Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair told a press conference that "exports since the beginning of the month have reached a rate of two million barrels" per day, for a total of around 26 million barrels, saying the daily rate was achieved "for the first time since the crisis began".

Americans unexpectedly cut their spending in July as a boost from government tax refunds faded.

Retail sales slipped 0.6% last month, the biggest drop since May 2025, from a revised gain of 0.2% in June, according to Commerce Department data released Friday.

The top U.S. priority now in the Iran war is no longer its nuclear program but to bring gasoline prices down for American consumers, the vice president said Thursday, with the treasury secretary adding that new economic punishment to wear down Tehran is imminent.

The comments by Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent illustrate the powerful leverage Tehran has gained by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.

European stocks mostly rose Thursday as investors welcomed news of easing U.S. inflation, while oil prices fell back from recent gains amid uncertainty over the prospects for the Strait of Hormuz.

London's stock market, however, fell as shares in heavyweight mining companies retreated after copper giant Antofagasta downgraded its production outlook.

U.S. consumer inflation slowed slightly to 3.4 percent in July despite turbulent oil prices due to the Iran war, government data showed, with the data likely giving the Federal Reserve room to breathe on interest rates.

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.1 percent from a month earlier, but fell on a year-on-year basis, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data was in line with analyst expectations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation for Western seizures of its commercial vessels, describing them as "piracy."

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship that was taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin described the Western moves to detain vessels linked to Russia as a breach of international maritime law.

Wall Street is modestly lower in premarket trading and oil prices settled despite lingering uncertainty about when the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to the global flow of oil again.

Futures for the S&P 500 ticked up 0.1% before the opening bell Tuesday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average nudged down 0.1%. Nasdaq futures rose 0.3%.