Oil prices eased on profit-taking Friday following two days of solid gains as traders turned their attention to next week's planned meeting of key producers.

India signed a formal agreement Friday to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault for 7.9 billion euros ($8.8 billion), one of its biggest defence deals in decades.

France's economy contracted by 0.1 percent in the second quarter, the Insee statistics agency said Friday, revising an initial estimate of zero growth.

Brazilian police Thursday arrested Guido Mantega, a former finance minister under presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, as part of the investigation into the vast Petrobras corruption scheme, media reported.

Mantega, who was an important figure in the leftist Workers' Party, was arrested at a Sao Paulo hospital where his wife had undergone surgery, his lawyer Jose Roberto Batochio told the G1 online news outlet. The arrest also was reported by Folha group's UOL site.

Oil prices climbed Thursday, building on the previous day's gains following a bigger-than-forecast fall in U.S. stockpiles, and a plunge in the dollar after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold.

Conflict-hit Libya could run out of money next year without a swift resumption of oil exports, the head of the country's National Oil Corporation (NOC) warned on Thursday.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto partly blamed Donald Trump on Wednesday for the peso's fall and he admitted he may have been too quick to hold an unpopular meeting with him.

China has removed an almost 13-year-old ban on some U.S. beef products, its quality inspection regulator said Thursday.

Aviation giants Airbus and Boeing Co. have received permission from the U.S. government to sell aircraft to Iran, part of landmark deals potentially worth some $50 billion in total following last year's nuclear accord.

The announcements Wednesday came as Iranian and U.S. leaders are in New York for the United Nations General Assembly and show that the outgoing administration of President Barack Obama is honoring the economic terms of the nuclear pact.

Zara-owner Inditex posted a rise in first-half profits Wednesday thanks to a well-honed business model allowing the Spanish group to beat rivals in whisking new trends to the shop racks.