European Union countries must funnel their energy aid chiefly to vulnerable households and industries or risk wasting billions of euros as the Iran war hits oil and gas prices, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Wednesday.

The U.S.-Israel war, combined with retaliation from Iran such as choking the Strait of Hormuz, is costing the EU almost 500 million euros ($600 million) a day, raising prices at the pumps and fears of a jet fuel shortage within weeks.

The Iranian rial plummeted to a record low against the dollar on Wednesday, according to currency-tracking websites, as a U.S. naval blockade of the country's ports continued.

On the black market, the rial was trading at around 1.80 million rials against the dollar, the Bonbast and AlanChand websites reported. When the war erupted two months ago, one dollar was traded at about 1.70 million rials.

Stocks mostly advanced in Asia on Wednesday despite losses on Wall Street, while oil prices fell after the United Arab Emirates said it would leave OPEC in a blow to the powerful oil cartel.

U.S. futures edged higher.

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday that it will leave the oil cartel OPEC and its wider OPEC+ group effective May 1, a move rumored for some time as the Emirates chaffed under production restrictions and increasingly had frostier relations with neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The UAE had been a longtime member of OPEC, first through its emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967 and later when the UAE became its own country in 1971.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday slammed Israel for allegedly accepting shipments of Ukrainian grain "stolen" by Russia, which occupies swathes of Ukrainian agricultural land.

"Another vessel carrying such grain has arrived at a port in Israel and is preparing to unload," Zelensky wrote in a statement on social media.

In the heartland of Iran's famed carpet-making industry, manufacturing has ground to a near halt. Dairies struggle to find packages for milk and butter. Giant steel mills that once drove Iran's economy have gone silent. Hundreds of thousands have lost jobs, and millions more are at risk.

Over more than five weeks of bombardment, U.S. and Israeli strikes hit thousands of factories. The damage is reverberating across Iran's economy, threatening increasing waves of layoffs, even as Iranians face skyrocketing prices. The cost of chicken is up 75% the past month, and beef and lamb jumped 68%. Many dairy products have increased by half.

World shares mostly gained and the price of Brent crude oil jumped $2.50 a barrel early Monday as talks on ending the war with Iran stayed snagged.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index hit a fresh record Monday after U.S. stocks ended last week with new highs.

Business activity in the eurozone contracted for the first time in 16 months in April, as the war in the Middle East drove energy prices higher and disrupted global supply chains, a closely watched survey showed Thursday.

The Flash Eurozone purchasing managers' index (PMI) published by S&P Global, an important gauge of the overall health of the economy, registered a figure of 48.6 this month, down from 50.7 in March.

A senior Iranian parliament official said on Thursday that Tehran has received the first revenue from tolls it imposed on the strategic Strait of Hormuz in its war with the United States and Israel.

"The first revenue received from the Strait of Hormuz tolls was deposited into the Central Bank account," said deputy speaker of parliament Hamidreza Hajibabaei, according to Tasnim news agency.

The flow of Russian oil to Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline that crosses Ukraine has resumed, Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Saková said Thursday.

Hungary and Slovakia have been locked in an escalating feud with Ukraine since Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia were halted in January.