US energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for a third week in a row, as a recovery in oil prices prompted some drillers to return to the wellpad over the past year. 

President Joe Biden’s administration announced steps on Thursday to allow US states to continue expanded unemployment benefits as the country grapples with a surge in the Delta variant of Covid-19, even as data showed jobless claims declining for a fourth straight week.

German car giant Volkswagen will slash production at its main plant due to ongoing problems with the global supply of computer chips, a spokesman told AFP on Friday.

European business leaders have warned that Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine measures have left its residents  “indefinitely trapped” in the city, threatening its status as an international business centre.

The US military in Afghanistan sent helicopters to rescue over 150 Americans unable to reach the Kabul airport gates, an official said Friday, in the first evidence that US forces were willing and able to go beyond the US-secured compound to help people seeking evacuation.

Having hunkered down at home and clung on to his job through the 2020 lockdowns, Dutch IT worker Benito Castillion is now on the hunt for a career-enhancing move - and it’s a shift of perspective he shares with millions of white-collar staff worldwide. 

Oil dropped to below $66 a barrel on Thursday, its lowest since May, pressured by concerns about weaker demand as Covid-19 cases rise, a stronger US dollar and a surprise increase in US gasoline inventories.

Toyota Motor Corp will reduce global production for September by 40 per cent from its previous plan due to the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday.

Heroin production has boomed in Afghanistan in recent years, helping fund the Taliban, and experts say they will struggle to wean themselves off the profitable trade despite their promise to do so.

President Joe Biden should keep Jerome Powell at the helm of the Federal Reserve for another four years to build confidence in an improving economy that still faces significant risks, Senator Steve Daines said in a letter to the president on Thursday.

Despite its swift takeover of the government in Afghanistan, the Taliban will not have access to most of the nation’s cash and gold stocks, while the IMF announced it won’t provide aid.

If you want to invest in a fund branded as sustainable under new European Union rules, you’re spoilt for choice. But you may end up owning shares in oil companies, mining conglomerates or tobacco firms. 

The US economy likely created 166,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday.

Global stocks and oil markets tanked Thursday but the dollar rallied versus some key rivals after the US Federal Reserve signalled it could rein in vast stimulus measures this year.

Walmart lifted its full-year forecast Tuesday following another solid performance at its US stores in the second quarter even as e-commerce growth slowed compared with earlier in the pandemic.

Global stock markets were broadly lower Tuesday as investors fretted that the resurgent Delta coronavirus variant may put the brakes on the global economic recovery.

Oil prices steadied on Wednesday, after four days of declines with investors still wary about prospects for stronger fuel demand as the use of rail, air and other forms of transport remained constrained amid surging Covid-19 cases worldwide. 

China is facing a high profile test of its commitment to curbing industrial pollution after steel output surged in the first half of the year to well beyond its target of capping production at 2020’s peak, sending emissions to new highs. 

Britain’s annual inflation rate slowed sharply last month as clothing retailers slashed prices in the pandemic-hit sector, official data showed Wednesday, but economists warned it will likely rise again.

The proportion of Britons buying groceries online dipped to 20 per cent in the 12 weeks to Aug. 8, the lowest level seen since October last year, as shoppers returned to stores, market researcher Kantar said on Tuesday.