France's telecom giant Orange Tuesday reported a near tripling of net profits in 2015 as it pursues efforts to take over smaller rival Bouygues Telecom.

Net profits came in at 2.65 billion euros ($2.95 billion) despite sales slipping back 0.1 percent to 40.24 billion euros in line with average estimates, financial director Ramon Fernandez said, welcoming a "stabilising of margins."

Eight years after the financial crisis, the world is coming to grips with an unpleasant realization: serious weaknesses still plague the global economy, and emergency help may not be on the way.

Sinking stock prices, flat inflation, and the bizarre phenomenon of negative interest rates have coupled with a downturn in emerging markets to raise worries that the economy is being stalked by threats that central banks — the saviors during the crisis — may struggle to cope with.

Oil crept higher Tuesday on news that Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar and non-OPEC member Russia have agreed to freeze their crude production at January levels.

In late morning London deals, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April advanced 50 cents to $33.89 per barrel.

Top global producers Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed Tuesday to freeze oil output in a bid to shore up prices after a 70 percent drop due to chronic oversupply.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the move -- which is conditional on other major producers joining in -- was designed to stabilize the market following the dramatic price fall since mid-2014.

Ukraine on Monday banned the transit of Russian trucks across its territory in a tit-for-tat response to an escalating trade war between the feuding ex-Soviet states.

The measure follows a halt to all flights between the neighbors and an effective Russian freeze on Ukrainian imports that have hit the cash-strapped country's industrial exports especially hard.

Europe's largest bank HSBC informed the financial markets on Monday it would remain headquartered in Britain, rejecting a move to Hong Kong despite concerns about increased regulation in the UK.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation said in a note to the London Stock Exchange following a board meeting on Sunday that London's many advantages meant it was "ideally positioned" to provide a home base.

Oil prices turned lower again Monday as Iran prepared to ship its first consignment of the commodity since sanctions were lifted, reigniting worries over a global supply glut.

Both main contracts had soared more than 10 percent Friday on a report that the OPEC producers' club was open to output cuts that could drag prices up from more than 12-year lows.

China's central bank on Monday fixed the value of the yuan higher by the biggest margin for more than three months after its chief Zhou Xiaochuan said there was no reason the unit should fall further.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) set the yuan at 6.5118 to $1.0, strengthening 0.30 percent from the fix on February 5 which was the last trading day before a long holiday, according to figures from the national foreign exchange market.

Iran remains essentially off limits to U.S. banks, despite the lifting of some U.S. sanctions following the landmark Iranian nuclear deal.

The Obama administration in mid-January eased several restrictions on doing business with Iran, including former "secondary" sanctions that had threatened to penalize companies outside the U.S. for their business with Iran, as well as some restrictions on Americans seeking to make inroads in the oil-rich country. 

Ukraine's failure to fight state graft is testing the patience of its Western allies and threatening renewed economic and political chaos in a country still healing the wounds of war.

The latest and perhaps sternest warning to the pro-EU team of President Petro Poroshenko came Wednesday from IMF chief Christine Lagarde -- the architect and one of the most ardent supporters of Ukraine's huge financial rescue plan.