US Federal Reserve officials will lay bare how soon and how often they think the economy will need interest rates rises over the next three years when they release new forecasts at their policy meeting on Wednesday, with investors on alert for a faster pace of tightening.

Oil prices fell on Friday as energy companies in the US Gulf of Mexico restarted production after back-to-back hurricanes in the region shut output.

It is perhaps as predictable as it is problematic: Within days of news that two Federal Reserve bank presidents had engaged in controversial stock trades, one of the fiercest critics of the U.S. central bank’s financial system oversight demands new ethics rules that would bar such dealings in the future.

Sterling hit fresh lows against a broadly stronger dollar and rose versus the euro on Friday as some investment banks brought forward their forecast for a Bank of England rate rise.

US officials are examining possible insider trading and market manipulation at Binance, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, potentially adding more heat to the cryptocurrency exchange that has become a target of regulatory scrutiny in many countries.

With the United States on the upswing from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve is expected to weigh in next week on whether the economy is healthy enough to begin withdrawing stimulus measures credited with aiding the revival.

The global dominance of tech giants serves as a convenient online chokepoint for authoritarian governments to crack down on dissent or rig elections, critics of Apple and Google said Friday.

Japan said it would have to determine if China meets the  “extremely high standards” of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the world’s second-biggest economy formally applied to join.

Airbus has agreed to cut prices or reschedule delivery for hundreds of jets ordered by Malaysia’s AirAsia to salvage a contract worth tens of billions of dollars with its largest Asian customer, industry sources said on Friday.

British retail sales fell last month as the grocery sector was hit by people returning to restaurants and pubs after virus curbs were lifted, data showed Friday.

Google abused the dominant position of its Android operating system in India, using its “huge financial muscle” to illegally hurt competitors, the country’s antitrust authority found in a report on its two-year probe seen by Reuters.

The largest US banking lobby groups banded together on Friday to make another push to kill a proposed bank account reporting law being drawn up as part of the congressional reconciliation package.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is in talks with Huawei and lawyers for its Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou about an agreement that could allow her to return to China, the Globe and Mail reported on Friday, citing Canadian sources.

Iranian fuel and petrochemical exports have boomed in recent years despite stringent US sanctions, leaving Iran well placed to expand sales swiftly in Asia and Europe if Washington lifts its curbs, trading sources and officials said.

Anyone can be a banker these days, you just need the right code.

When Ford Motor Co built its first factory in India in the mid-1990s, US carmakers believed they were buying into a boom - the next China.

With an ageing population in need of transport, Japan is betting on autonomous cars, but an accident involving a self-driving showcase at the Paralympics illustrates the challenges ahead.

US stock index futures fell slightly on Thursday after a strong rally in the previous session, with investor focus shifting to upcoming data on jobless claims and retail sales for a better reading on the ongoing economic recovery. 

British businesses have reported a sharp rise in recruitment difficulties within the space of just a few weeks - partly as a result of a continued lack of European Union workers, official figures showed on Thursday.

If investors in China’s biotech industry needed one more sign that the sector is coming of age, then a major licensing deal RemeGen Co Ltd struck last month with Seattle-based Seagen Inc fits the bill.