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NEW YORK -- Walmart is getting out of the vaping business. The nation's largest retailer said Friday that it will stop selling electronic cigarettes at its namesake stores and Sam's Clubs in the U.S. Source

A major oil company will drill seven new exploratory wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. ConocoPhillips is planning the work for this winter, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. The wells will be focused on the prospective Harpoon area southwest of the company's existing projects in the reserve, ConocoPhillips Alaska vice-president Scott Jepsen said during a presentation last week to the Alaska Support Industry Alliance. Source

As Canadian home prices rose from 2014 to 2017, many households tapped the growing value in their homes for other spending, according to study by Bank of Canada economists. About two million households used home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), but another 380,000 got mortgage financing to raise equity, taking advantage of interest rates that fell in 2015, the researchers say in an analysis released Friday. Source

Canadian homeowners who accessed their home equity through a loan or refinancing helped fuel household spending in recent years, according to research by staff at the Bank of Canada. Household spending moved in a similar direction to home prices over roughly the past decade, with both rising sharply in 2016 and 2017, according to a staff analytical note by several of the central bank's researchers. Source

The Supreme Court of Canada has given the green light to a pair of British Columbia class-action suits alleging a global price-fixing conspiracy by electronics firms. The suits, filed by Whistler, B.C., businessman Neil Godfrey, allege the companies overcharged buyers of optical disc drives and products containing them, such as computers and video-game consoles. Source

OSHAWA, Ont. -- Approximately 1,850 unionized workers have been temporarily laid off with pay from General Motors' Oshawa, Ont. plant as the ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers union in the U.S. reverberates through the North American auto industry. Source

Thousands of workers in Ontario's auto industry have been temporarily laid off after General Motors shut production at its Oshawa Assembly Plant because of the ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers union in the U.S. Source

The Toronto Stock Exchange's benchmark stock index closed at an all-time high and was flirting with crossing 17,000 points for the first time ever on Friday. The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed at 16,858 on Thursday, an all-time closing high, before it added another 80 points when trading resumed on Friday to put it within striking distance of 17,000 points. Source

TOKYO -- Japan announced Friday it will accept South Korea's request for joint talks leading to arbitration by the World Trade Organization after Seoul filed a complaint with the international body over Tokyo's tightening of export controls. Source

One of Japan's most storied trading houses says it's lost $320 million in a series of unauthorized transactions by a rogue trader. Mitsubishi Corp. said Friday that the employee in its Petro-Diamond unit in Singapore disguised the trades to look like legitimate hedges. Source