A ferry firm that has signed a contract to ship critical products to Britain in the event of a no-deal Brexit on Friday launched the first of its extra services.

The pound fell Friday after Britain's parliament again rejected a proposed deal to withdraw from the European Union.

The pound climbed solidly on Friday before a crucial vote on Britain's Brexit future.

Stock markets meanwhile rallied, with investors looking past a downgrade of US growth to focus on the next round of top-level China-US trade talks.

London's stock market steadied at the open on Friday, with investors sitting tight before a crucial vote on Britain's Brexit future.

Top negotiators from China and the United States resumed a fresh round of trade talks in Beijing on Friday aiming to settle the bruising spat that has threatened the global economy.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were greeted by Vice Premier Liu He at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse as the three men seek to resolve the long-running trade war between the world's top two economies.

U.S. banking giant Goldman Sachs has been fined £34.3 million ($45.3 million, 40.2 million euros) over failures to report transactions properly, British regulators said Thursday.

Iceland's troubled budget carrier WOW Air said it had ceased operations and canceled all flights on Thursday, stranding thousands of passengers in the low-cost airline industry's latest collapse. 

Saudi state oil giant Aramco said Wednesday it is buying a majority stake in petrochemicals behemoth SABIC for $69.1 billion, a deal that gives the crown prince's ambitious reform programme a massive cash boost.

The 70-percent stake purchase effectively merges the kingdom's two largest companies, handing its top sovereign wealth fund around the same amount it had expected from a much-delayed Aramco IPO.

The United States and China open the latest round of their trade talks Thursday as the economic superpowers edge towards a deal to resolve a months-long spat that has rattled the global economy.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are expected to resume talks in Beijing with China's top economic official Liu He, the first since China put into law new measures seen as an olive branch in their high-stakes stand-off.

US aviation authorities will defend their certification methods for new planes before lawmakers Wednesday, two weeks after grounding the Boeing 737 MAX over two deadly crashes in less than five months.