Wall Street appears ready to add to a rally last week ignited by data hinting at slowing U.S. wage gains, one of the goals of the Federal Reserve in its efforts to cool decades-high inflation.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrials rose 0.3% while the S&P 500 rose 0.5%.

U.K. government ministers met trade union leaders on Monday in a bid to end a wave of strikes that has hobbled the rail network and strained the overburdened health system.

There were some signs of progress but no breakthrough after a meeting between Health Secretary Steve Barclay and health care unions. Other ministers are meeting with railway unions that have staged months of strikes, and teaching unions considering classroom walkouts.

Cabinet will convene but caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is keen on calling for it when the political climate is calm, his circles said.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that Mikati does not want to further complicate the situation and that he will make all the needed calls and consultations in the coming days in order to hold a cabinet session that could only discuss the electricity file.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab announced Monday that the joint parliamentary committees are expected to approve the long-awaited capital control law in their next session.

“In principle, one session remains to approve the law and its amendments,” Bou Saab said after a session on Monday.

A list with the names of the Lebanese banking and financial officials who will be questioned in the coming days in Beirut by three European judicial delegations has been leaked to the media.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the list has been received by State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat.

The first European judicial delegation that will question senior Lebanese banking and financial officials will arrive in Beirut on Monday and will be followed by two other delegations over the next 10 days, media reports said.

“Two delegations from Germany and Luxembourg will separately arrive first and will be followed days later by a French delegation,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported Monday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat called Monday for the support of Egypt amid its economic crisis.

"Egypt is going through very dangerous circumstances as a result of the conditions of the International Monetary Fund, the scarcity of resources, the narrowness of agricultural lands, and the high prices of imported wheat after the Ukraine war," Jumblat said in a tweet.

Amazon announced Wednesday it will cut more than 18,000 jobs from its workforce, citing "the uncertain economy" and the fact the online retail giant had "hired rapidly" during the pandemic.

Stock markets mostly extended the solid start to the year Thursday as China reopens its economy from lockdowns, while oil prices recovered after heavy losses.

The Egyptian pound has tumbled in its largest single-day slide since the cash-strapped government agreed to a $3 billion International Monetary Fund deal in mid-December, authorities said.

The pound fell from around 24.7 for $1 to just over 26.3 against the dollar, some three weeks after Egypt and the IMF formally ratified the support package, approved in exchange for a number of economic reforms implemented by the country's Central Bank, including a shift to a flexible exchange rate.