The plummeting Lebanese pound on Friday regained some of its value against the dollar after dropping to a record low last week, after Information Minister George Kordahi announced his resignation, in a move that could defuse a major diplomatic crisis with Gulf countries.

The pound, also known as lira, was trading at about 22,000 to the greenback, up from more than 25,000 just days earlier.

A Lebanese DJ was days away from moving to Riyadh to play for a month in one of the newest entertainment centers in Saudi Arabia's capital when a brief, polite WhatsApp message informed her that the contract won't go through.

The head of a Beirut-based communications agency had been negotiating to revive a two-year-old contract derailed by the pandemic for hundreds of thousands of dollars. After two days of silence her Saudi client, in an apologetic call, said now is not the time.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed a new treasury and finance minister early Thursday after Lutfi Elvan stepped down from the post as the currency has been tumbling to record lows.

Erdogan named Nureddin Nebati, who was deputy minister, to the post, according to an announcement published in the Official Gazette. It said Elvan asked to be "pardoned from the job" and that his request was accepted.

Global stock markets rebounded Wednesday and oil prices surged following Omicron-driven losses and on the eve of a key output meeting of OPEC and its allies.

European stocks and oil prices rebounded and Wall Street was poised to open higher Monday even as Asian markets fell further, with investors weighing the new coronavirus variant, omicron, that is being found in more countries and prompting some governments to reimpose travel controls.

Benchmarks in London, Frankfurt and Paris had gained by midday. Indexes in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended lower, though losses were smaller than Friday's fall, sparked by reports that the variant first spotted in South Africa appeared to spread around the globe.

From appliance stores in the United States to food markets in Hungary and gas stations in Poland, rising consumer prices fueled by high energy costs and supply chain disruptions are putting a pinch on households and businesses worldwide.

Rising inflation is leading to price increases for food, gas and other products and pushing many people to choose between digging deeper into their pockets or tightening their belts. In developing economies, it's especially dire.

Germany's government refused to back calls Friday for a swift and sharp lockdown to curb the country's worsening coronavirus situation, which saw daily confirmed cases hit a new peak and is putting hospitals under severe strain.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said contacts between people need to be sharply reduced, warning that "the situation is dramatically serious, more serious than it's been at any point in the pandemic."

French fishing crews temporarily blocked French ports and ferry traffic across the English Channel on Friday to disrupt the flow of goods to the U.K., a symbolic riposte in a dispute over post-Brexit fishing licenses.

It's the latest tension point between the neighboring countries, who are also trading blame for not doing enough to prevent the deaths of at least 27 migrants whose boat sank Wednesday off Calais, in the choppy waters of the world's busiest shipping route.

Global stocks and oil prices tumbled Friday after South Africa found a fast-spreading coronavirus variant and the European Union proposed suspending air travel from southern Africa.

London's benchmark fell 3% and Tokyo lost 2.5%. Shanghai, Frankfurt and Hong Kong also declined sharply. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2%.

The Lebanese pound sank to a new low on the black market Friday, with no end in sight to the economic and political crisis plunging ever growing numbers into poverty.

According to websites monitoring the black market rate, the pound was trading at 25,000 to the dollar, or nearly 17 times less than its official peg value of 1,500.