
Northern and southern counties of California are suffering from two huge wildfires that show no signs of dying down. With hot dry winds expected last until at least Tuesday, in the south there are fears for the wealthy beach town of Malibu, where a mandatory evacuation order has been issued for a quarter of a million people.

The Federal Reserve has left its key policy rate unchanged but signaled that it plans to keep responding to the strong U.S. economy with more interest rate hikes. The next rate increase is expected in December.

China reported much stronger-than-expected exports for October as shippers rushed goods to the United States, its biggest trading partner, racing to beat higher tariff rates due to kick in at the start of next year. Import growth also defied forecasts for a slowdown, suggesting Beijing’s growth-boosting measures to support the cooling economy may be slowly starting to make themselves felt.

Oil markets on Friday remained weak as rising supply and concerns of an economic slowdown pressured prices, with U.S. crude now down by 20% since early October. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at US$ 61.63 per barrel.

The U.S. decision to review its tariffs on Argentine biodiesel could mean a reversal of fortune for exporters whose shipments from South America have been practically nil, the biodiesel chamber of Argentina said on Thursday.

President Donald Trump's ongoing feud with Jim Acosta, CNN's chief White House correspondent, boiled over on Wednesday, with Trump verbally berating the journalist before the White House ultimately suspended his press access.

Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest leisure travel company, today announced that its cruise joint venture with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) will launch this week under the name CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping Limited. The new China-based cruise company plans to operate its own fleet to serve Chinese cruise guests by the end of 2019.

Investigate me, and I'll investigate you — and the result will likely be gridlock. This is one of the messages US President Donald Trump delivered on Wednesday at a press conference just a few hours after the Democrats took over the US House of Representatives.

Oil prices slipped on Wednesday, continuing a recent slide after surging U.S. crude output hit another record and domestic inventories rose more than expected. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said domestic crude inventories rose 5.8 million barrels in the latest week, more than double analysts’ expectations.

The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday said it would impose final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese common alloy aluminum sheet products of 96.3% to 176.2%. The decision marks the first time that final duties were issued in a trade remedy case initiated by the U.S. government since 1985.