The U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman will boycott Russia's annual showcase economic forum in Saint Petersburg next month over the prosecution of a top American investor, the embassy said Friday.

The increasingly fractious trade row between China and the United States was the main focus of Asian investor angst Friday, with most markets down to extend the previous day's steep losses, though oil edged back from a painful sell-off.

The United States on Thursday unveiled a new $16 billion aid package to help farmers caught in the crossfire of President Donald Trump's trade war with China.

Oil prices slumped more than four percent Thursday on growing trade tensions, which have deepened over the US blackballing Chinese telecom giant Huawei. 

Societe Generale de Banque au Liban announced Thursday that it has won the award for Most Active Issuing bank in Trade Finance in Lebanon for 2018 granted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The EBRD Trade Facilitation Program (TFP) honored its most successful partner banks in 2018 during a special award ceremony on the eve of the Bank’s Annual Meeting and Business Forum in Sarajevo. Through this special award ceremony, EBRD recognized special achievements in trade finance by partner banks.

Asian equities tumbled Thursday as China-US trade frictions continue to dog investors, while the pound hit a fresh four-month low on Brexit worries and energy firms were battered by plunging oil prices.

Japan's Panasonic on Thursday said it would stop supplying some components to Huawei, joining a growing list of firms distancing themselves from the Chinese telecoms giant after a US ban over security concerns.

Looking for ways to hit back at Washington as a tariff fight escalates, President Xi Jinping and his economy czar visited a Chinese factory that processes rare earths — exotic minerals used in electric cars, mobile phones and other technology.

Rare earths are "an important strategic resource," the official Xinhua News Agency cited Xi as saying.

The US's aviation regulator has still not received Boeing's proposed fix for its 737 MAX aircraft, which have been grounded globally following two deadly crashes, the agency's chief said on Wednesday.

China's foreign minister has slammed US moves against telecom giant Huawei as "economic bullying", and warned that Beijing was ready to "fight to the very end" in its trade war with Washington.