The British pound fell Thursday after the Bank of England raised its key interest rate as investors doubted that any more monetary tightening is on its way soon.

Weakness in sterling, in turn, boosted London's main stock market index where exporters stand to gain from a falling currency.

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways said Thursday it will suspend from next March flights to the US city of Dallas rendered unprofitable after American Airlines ended a codeshare deal with it.

In July, American Airlines said it would no longer share flights with Etihad and Qatar Airways as part of its push against what it views as unfair government subsidies to Middle East carriers.

Up to 6,000 jobs will be axed in a major restructuring at National Australia Bank, the lender said Thursday after posting Aus$5.28 billion (US$4.1 billion) in annual net profits.

The positions will go as the bank further automates and simplifies its business to reshape for a digital future. Some 2,000 new jobs will be created.

Some 10,000 UK financial services jobs could move abroad on the first day of Brexit, the Bank of England predicted Wednesday after warnings of up to 75,000 relocations in total.

The New York Times on Wednesday reported a surge in profits in the third quarter, fueled by gains in digital subscriptions which helped offset ongoing declines from print operations.

The prestigious daily, a frequent target of President Donald Trump, said its digital paid subscribers numbered 2.49 million in the third quarter, an increase of 154,000 from the prior three months and up 59 percent from a year earlier.

The U.S. private sector saw job creation rebound strongly in October, after being tamped down in the prior month by back-to-back hurricanes, payroll firm ADP reported Wednesday.

The surge beat the consensus estimate among economists and was in line with analysts' expectations for an even bigger rebound in the key government jobs report due out Friday.

The Bank of England, on guard against soaring Brexit-fuelled inflation, is on the precipice of lifting its key interest rate Thursday for the first time since 2007, according to analysts.

China's two big oil giants PetroChina and Sinopec have reported strong third-quarter net profits on robust domestic demand.

Samsung Electronics logged a record profit of $10.0 billion for the third quarter and announced a sweeping reshuffle of its top management on Tuesday, seeking to maintain its lead while its heir is in prison.  

The world's biggest memory chip and smartphone maker has faced multiple challenges since last year, including a humiliating recall of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 handsets and a corruption scandal that engulfed its de facto leader.

The IMF on Tuesday advised energy-rich Gulf economies to speed up their diversification away from oil after projecting the worst growth for the region since the global financial crisis.

Oil exporters in the Middle East, especially those in the Gulf Cooperation Council, have been hit hard by the collapse in crude prices which provided a major part of their finances.