NEW YORK--U.S. stocks were slightly lower midday as investors waited for the Federal Reserve's policy announcement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped seven points, less than 0.1%, to 15311 in midday trading.

TORONTO - The Bank of Canada is likely to start raising its benchmark interest rate in July 2014, a full year before the U.S. Federal Reserve, BMO's chief economist Douglas Porter said Wednesday.

MONTREAL -- Orascom Telecom Holding says it's withdrawing an application to acquire control of Wind Mobile Canada, one of the smaller wireless carriers that's seeking to grow into a stronger rival for the country's three main cellphone companies.

TORONTO - Canada's growth outlook appears to be stronger than previously thought, thanks to an improving trade picture and the strength of corporate balance sheets, economists at the Royal Bank of Canada said Wednesday.

At least two groups of American hedge funds have bought large chunks of Tim Hortons shares recently, a sign the activist investors want to push the company to make major changes to its business, or possibly give up some control over the company.

Consumer use of technology is transforming media and entertainment companies with almost 60 per cent of their revenues expected to come from digital sources by 2015, a new global survey says.

Norwegian oil giant Statoil ASA said Wednesday it made a big discovery of light oil offshore Newfoundland, the latest find in Canada's Atlantic region--a big and fast-growing petroleum play that's often overshadowed by the country's western oil-sands ...

Imperial Oil is closing its refinery in Eastern Passage and converting it into a marine terminal. The company said it could not find a buyer for its facility to continue operating as a refinery.

TERRACE - There is a growing imbalance between oil supply and delivery in Canada and doing nothing is not an option, the lawyer for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers told a federal panel weighing the Northern Gateway project.

The following is the text of Canada's wholesale trade report for April from Statistics Canada. Wholesale sales rose 0.2% in April to $49.0 billion, mainly as a result of higher sales in the computer and communications equipment and supplies industry.