The European Central Bank and other policymakers across Europe need to keep interest rates at current elevated levels until they're sure inflation is under control despite sluggish growth, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday, warning against "premature celebration" as inflation declines from its peak.

The Washington-based IMF said that cost of underestimating inflation's persistence could be painfully high and result in another painful round of rate hikes that could rob the economy of a large chunk of growth.

Nintendo reported an 18% rise in net profit for its first fiscal half on Tuesday, as sales continued to get a boost from its hit Super Mario movie, and the popularity of its software for various new video games.

April-September profit at Nintendo Co., which didn't break down quarterly results, totaled nearly 271.3 billion yen ($1.8 billion), up from 230 billion yen a year earlier. Sales surged 21% to 796 billion yen ($5.3 billion).

In a convenience store in Bahrain, 14-year-old Jana Abdullah carries a tablet as she shops, checking a list of Western brands to avoid as Israel pounds Gaza in its campaign to destroy Hamas.

Jana and her 10-year-old brother, Ali, used to eat at McDonald's nearly daily but they are among many across the Middle East now boycotting products they believe support Israel.

The inflation that has been wearing on European consumers fell sharply to 2.9% in October, its lowest in more than two years as fuel prices fell and rapid interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank took hold.

But that encouraging news was balanced by official figures showing economic output in the 20 countries that use the euro shrank by 0.1% in the July-September quarter.

Pfizer lost more than $2 billion in the third quarter as an expected COVID-19 product sales decline clipped revenue.

Sales of the drugmaker's COVID treatment Paxlovid and the vaccine Comirnaty slid 97% and 70%, respectively, as Pfizer, like its competitors, switched to selling on the commercial market instead of to governments.

The soldiers guarding Avi Chivivian's organic vegetable farm in southern Israel must first scour every corner of his fields for militants before they give him the all clear: He has six hours to work.

It's potato planting season for the farms of southern Israel, a region near the Gaza border that the Agriculture Ministry calls the country's "vegetable barn" because it supplies at least a third of Israel's vegetables. But Chivivian — one of the few remaining farmers in the area since the brutal Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants — no longer lives by the harvest cycle. He's on the military's timetable.

Just last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted a new era of peace and prosperity in the Middle East, based on growing acceptance of Israel within the region.

Today, with the Israel-Hamas war in its fourth week, that vision is in tatters.

The World Bank reported Monday that oil prices could be pushed into "uncharted waters" if the violence between Israel and Hamas intensifies, which could result in increased food prices worldwide.

The World Bank's Commodity Markets Outlook found that while the effects on oil prices should be limited if the conflict doesn't widen, the outlook "would darken quickly if the conflict were to escalate."

A Lebanese judge has decided to evict former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn from his luxury home, a judicial official said Saturday, four years after an investment firm accused him of "trespassing."

Premarket trading is mixed on Wall Street, but oil prices are moving higher after U.S. fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Israeli military said its troops and tanks had briefly entered Gaza for a second time.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% before the bell.