Saudi shares slumped 6.8 percent as trading opened Sunday, a day after the finance minister announced "painful" measures to tackle the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

Almost all the listed stocks on the Arab world's largest bourse were in the red just minutes after the start of trading.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has declared his country will not approach the IMF for loans, despite a financial crisis triggered by a collapse in global oil prices and coronavirus lockdowns.

London stocks sank Friday in early morning deals, extending the previous day's heavy selloff on poor global economic data, while Frankfurt and Paris were shut for public holidays.

The French economy officially fell into recession after contracting 5.8 percent in the first quarter, the national statistics office said Thursday, underscoring the massive toll of the country's nationwide shutdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

Chinese factory activity continued to expand in April, data showed Thursday, but analysts warned that the outlook remained clouded by battered overseas demand as the rest of the world struggles to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

US oil prices surged above $17 a barrel Thursday as virus-ravaged markets were lifted by data showing improving demand and a smaller-than-expected rise in stockpiles in the world's top economy.

Like thousands of Saudi women, Rouaa al-Mousa entered the workforce as reforms sweep the ultra-conservative kingdom and is certain that neither grumbling male bosses nor the coronavirus will change that.

German output will suffer a record slump this year over the coronavirus crisis, the government warned Wednesday, pushing Europe's top economy into a painful recession.

LAU has received a considerable donation from Antoun Nabil Sehnaoui, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), toward the LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, LAU said in a statement released Wednesday.

Commending the university’s endeavors, Sehnaoui remarked that its most recent initiatives, since the COVID-19 outbreak, underscored its “commitment in equal measure to help the community and to raise the bar in higher education in Lebanon and the Middle East.”

Boeing announced sweeping cost-cutting measures Wednesday after reporting a first-quarter loss of $641 million following the hit to the airline business from the coronavirus pandemic.