With oil prices nudging steadily higher, market expectations are for crude-pumping countries to prolong their deal to curb output at a meeting at OPEC headquarters in Vienna on Thursday.

Markets could be disappointed, however, with Russia reportedly not yet fully on board about signing up to extending the agreement, due to expire on March 31, until the end of 2018, experts say.

Bitcoin soared to fresh records Tuesday, putting it on course for $10,000, but the virtual currency's stratospheric rise has fuelled fears of a bubble after a 10-fold increase this year. 

Britain's lenders could support the economy through a "disorderly" Brexit, the Bank of England said Tuesday, as the sector passed its latest round of stress tests.

The assessments are designed to see whether the banking sector can weather a fierce worldwide recession, crashing house prices and soaring unemployment.

Eurozone stocks were mostly lower Monday as the euro extended gains on hopes that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is close to forming a government, dealers said.

A court blocked Uber's ride-sharing services in Israel on Monday in a victory for the country's traditional taxi operators, saying the U.S. firm's private drivers lacked proper insurance.

Iraq said Monday it will start receiving bids next June for projects to develop nine oil and gas fields in an attempt by the war-ravaged nation to boost energy revenues.

Abdul-Mahdi al-Ameedi, who heads the Oil Ministry's Licensing and Petroleum Contracts Department, said that detailed energy information on the nine areas in question will be disclosed at the end of this month.

The UK Lebanon Tech Hub (UKLTH), a joint initiative by Banque du Liban (Lebanon’s Central Bank) and the British Embassy in Beirut, has announced that inside three years of operation it has boosted Lebanon’s knowledge economy by creating 1,370 direct and indirect jobs. It also contributed more than US $8.5 million worth of deals into the UK and a $26 million increase in company revenues in Lebanon.

The hub, which helps grow tech innovations into global businesses primarily through London, accelerated 78 startups that raised more than $36 million and are currently valued at more than $200 million. The figures presented at the demo day of The Nucleus, the hub’s startup venture building program, were welcomed by Hugo Shorter, the British Ambassador to Lebanon.

Tax optimization is no longer a matter just for the multinationals. A number of market players are now tailoring strategies originally drawn up for the corporate whales to the minnows, or small businesses and independent entrepreneurs.

Powered by Chinese smartphone users splurging billions on mobile games and online shopping, China's tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are racing up the elite league of the world's most valuable companies.

Bitcoin, which this week soared to a new record high of more than $8,000, is the monetary equivalent of Uber, since it bypasses central bank regulation and could be attractive for financially fragile countries, economists say.