Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced the launch of an independent economic zone on the Red Sea, three times the size of Cyprus and with a half a trillion dollars in projected investments.

The head of oil giant Saudi Aramco said Tuesday that a lack of recent investments in the oil sector could lead to a shortage of supplies. 

The dollar extended last week's gains in Asian trade Monday on hopes for Donald Trump's tax-cut plans, while Tokyo chalked up a record winning streak on a weak yen and following a big election win for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Embattled commodities trader Noble Group announced Monday the sale of its American oil-liquids business to Vitol Group and warned of a third-quarter loss of up to $1.25 billion.

In its heyday in the 1980s, more than a thousand brokers dressed in signature red blazers made deals on the trading floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in what was a raucous, competitive bear pit.

Inside a locked room in an office building in Caracas, 20 humming computers use their data-crunching power to mine bitcoins, an increasingly popular tool in the fight against Venezuela's hyperinflation.

In warehouses, offices and homes, miners are using modified computers to perform complex computations, essentially book-keeping for digital transactions worldwide, for which they earn a commission in bitcoins.

After prayers at the Chantelle Abbey in Allier, central France, a marketing meeting between the abbey's nuns and their employees discusses the latest orders for its on-site soap and cosmetics products, the delivery destination: Germany.

The value of shares traded on Gulf stock markets plummeted this year, a report said on Sunday, in the latest sign of how the region's economies are struggling with the drop in oil prices. 

The United Arab Emirates' exchanges in Dubai and Abu Dhabi led the dive in liquidity levels, which measure the value of traded shares and are normally a reflection of the health of national economy.

EU anti-trust regulators have raided the offices of automaker BMW in Munich, the company said, in a fresh blow to the German car industry already hit by the Dieselgate scandal.

Total insured market losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and two earthquakes in Mexico this year came to around $95 billion, reinsurance group Swiss Re announced Friday.

The Zurich-based company estimated its own pre-tax claims burdens from three hurricanes and two quakes at some $3.6 billion (3.05 billion euros) in the third quarter.