US aviation regulators were slammed Friday for allowing design changes to Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft that have been implicated in two crashes causing the deaths of more than 300 people.

Oil prices surged more than two percent Friday after an Iranian tanker was hit by suspected missile strikes near Saudi Arabia, sparking fresh supply concerns with tensions already high after last month's attacks on two Saudi crude facilities.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday he will meet with China's top trade envoy as the two sides pursue fraught negotiations that this week appeared headed for a dead end.

The EU removed Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates from its list of tax havens on Thursday, giving two global hubs for multinational tax schemes the all clear. 

Asian markets were mixed Thursday with investors moving cautiously as they sifted through conflicting reports about the outlook for upcoming China-US trade talks.

Global investors have been broadly upbeat in recent weeks that the meeting in Washington between top-level representatives would see at least some progress.

As they prepared to return to the negotiating table on Thursday, top Chinese trade officials faced a blitz of aggressive US maneuvers, with expectations for a grand bargain between both sides approaching zero.

Protesters in Ecuador threw projectiles at riot police Wednesday in a second day of violent protests over a fuel price hike ordered by the government to secure an IMF loan.

European and U.S. stock markets rebounded Wednesday, helped by reports that China would accept a partial trade deal with the US in key talks this week.

British travel agent Hays Travel on Wednesday said it had agreed to buy all 555 UK stores from Thomas Cook after the holiday company's collapse.

Nissan's new chief executive Makoto Uchida is an insider with a global outlook, but he faces an uphill struggle to right the Japanese automaker still reeling from the Carlos Ghosn scandal.

Uchida, 53, was named on Tuesday to replace Hiroto Saikawa, who resigned in September after being implicated in an excess pay scheme.