National Business

LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in California has found a new owner in billionaire businessman Ron Burkle.

TORONTO — Hopes for better times in 2021 drove North American stock markets to positive results as an abbreviated trading day ended at 1 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve. In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 30.31 points at 17,623.

TORONTO — Some of the most active companies traded Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange: Toronto Stock Exchange (17,623.88, up 30.31 points.) Zenabis Global Inc. (TSX:ZENA). Health Care. Up 0.3 cents, or 5.6 per cent, to 4.8 cents on 6.

Canadian retailers are expected to offer deep discounts this Boxing Day in a bid to entice shoppers to buy up leftover holiday and seasonal goods and raise enough cash to endure the latest round of pandemic restrictions.

TORONTO — The Weston family says Galen G. Weston has succeeded his father, W. Galen Weston, as the controlling shareholder of Wittington Investments, Ltd., the controlling shareholder of George Weston Ltd.

BEIJING — Chinese regulators on Thursday announced an anti-monopoly investigation of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, stepping up the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to control fast-growing tech industries.

Asian shares were mostly higher on Thursday after stocks eked out small gains on Wall Street following a mixed set of reports on the economy. Benchmarks rose in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney.

CALGARY — TransAlta Corp. says it is selling power transmission assets in Canada and the United States for $439 million to its majority owned subsidiary TransAlta Renewables Inc.

WASHINGTON — A late-term manoeuvr by President Donald Trump to use lower drug prices paid overseas to limit some of Medicare's own costs suffered a legal setback Wednesday that appears likely to keep the policy from taking effect before the president

TORONTO — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says Canadian broker-dealers Cormark Securities Inc. and ITG Canada Corp. have agreed to pay a total of US$1 million to settle charges of improper trading procedures.