Syria's finance minister has said Qatar will help the Islamist-led government to pay public sector salaries for the coming months through a mechanism he said had been exempted from U.S. sanctions.

There was no immediate announcement from either the Qatari government or the U.S. Treasury.

President Joseph Aoun on Thursday visited the Central Bank in Beirut’s Hamra area and met with its newly-appointed governor Karim Souaid and his four deputies.

Ambassador Lisa Johnson held Wednesday a reception at her residence to honor the Lebanese delegation to the SelectUSA 2025 Investment Summit to be held in Maryland, May 11-14.

The SelectUSA Investment Summit is the largest annual event to promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the United States by bringing together international investors, U.S. state and local representatives and government officials to facilitate investment in the U.S. economy.

Wall Street is poised to open with gains as the Federal Reserve wraps up a two-day policy meeting where it will almost certainly leave interest rates unchanged despite pleas from President Donald Trump for a rate cut as he pursues a worldwide trade war.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.6% before the bell Wednesday. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%.

China announced a barrage of measures meant to counter the blow to its economy from U.S. President Donald Trump 's trade war, as the two sides prepared for talks later this week.

Beijing's central bank governor and other top financial officials outlined plans Wednesday to cut interest rates and reduce bank reserve requirements to help free up more funding for lending. They also said the government would increase the amount of money available for factory upgrades and other innovation and for elder care and other service businesses.

Disney's posted solid profits and revenue in the second quarter as its domestic theme parks thrived and the company added well over a million subscribers to its streaming service.

For the three months ended March 30, Disney earned $3.28 billion, or $1.81 per share. The Burbank, California, company lost $20 million, or a penny per share, a year earlier.

Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since President Donald Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with their counterparts in Geneva in the most-senior known conversations between the two countries in months, the Trump administration announced Tuesday. It comes amid growing U.S. market worry over the impact of the tariffs on the prices and supply of consumer goods.

Saudi Arabia is inclined to lift the ban on the travel of its citizens to Lebanon on the first day of Eid al-Adha, which is expected to be marked on June 6, Al-Jadeed TV reported on Wednesday.

Two Emirati passenger planes landed Wednesday at the Rafik Hariri International Airport after the UAE lifted its travel ban on Lebanon.

President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that “the difficult circumstances that Lebanon went through have become behind us.”

“We’re looking forward to the coming days with a lot of optimism,” Aoun added, during a meeting in Baabda with the head of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Badr Mohammed Al-Saad.