The European Union announced on Wednesday an investigation into whether China is using unfair methods to deprive companies in Europe of access to its market for medical devices ranging from hypodermic needles to high-tech scanners.

The probe launched by the European Commission — the EU's executive branch as well as its trade and competition watchdog — is the latest attempt to help companies gain the kind of access to China's vast markets that Chinese firms enjoy in Europe.

Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.

Simmering tensions between Beijing and Washington remain the top worry for American companies operating in China, according to a report by the American Chamber of Commerce in China released Tuesday.

Faced with falling global sales and a diving stock price, Tesla has slashed prices again on some of its electric vehicles and its "Full Self Driving" system in an apparent effort to boost the company's earnings growth.

PepsiCo reported better-than-expected revenue in the first quarter on strong international demand for its snacks and beverages.

Iranian and Pakistani leaders vowed to strengthen economic and security cooperation in a meeting on Monday, as the two countries seek to smooth over a diplomatic rift.

Their meeting was part of efforts by Islamabad and Tehran to mend ties which had been briefly strained in January when each carried out strikes in other's territory, targeting militants accused of attacking their own security forces.

Asian markets rose Monday, clawing back some of last week's losses, as Middle East worries subsided and traders looked ahead to the release of key U.S. inflation data and corporate earnings.

With Iran downplaying a reported Israeli attack on the country, which came days after a drone and missile strike on Israel by Tehran, tensions between the regional foes appeared to have cooled.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official visit in more than a decade as his country seeks greater cooperation from Baghdad in its fight against a Kurdish militant group that has a foothold in northern Iraq.

Other issues also loom large between the two countries, including water supply issues and exports of oil and gas from northern Iraq to Turkey, which have been halted for more than a year.

The U.S. and U.K. have imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran as concern grows that Tehran's unprecedented attack on Israel could fuel a wider war in the Middle East.

The sanctions are meant to hold Iran accountable for its weekend attack and to deter further such activity. But the practical impact is likely to be limited because many of the targeted companies already were subject to U.S. sanctions and the individuals singled out for new sanctions are unlikely to have assets in U.S. jurisdictions.

Sometime in the next few days or even hours, the "miners" who chisel bitcoins out of complex mathematics are going to take a 50% pay cut — effectively slicing new production of the world's largest cryptocurrency in half.

That could have a lot of implications, from the price of the asset to the bitcoin miners themselves. And, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict.