US aviation regulators plan to require Boeing to rewire all 737 MAX aircraft before allowing the troubled planes fly again, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The MAX has been grounded worldwide since an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after take-off last March, less than six months after the same model was involved in a similar fatal accident in Indonesia. 

Financial markets around the world crashed Monday and a swathe of northern Italy was sealed off as authorities struggled to contain the spread and impact of the deadly coronavirus.

Lebanon, shaken by street protests and economic crisis and now set to default on its Eurobond debt, has pledged reforms that will serve as a litmus test for its new government.

"The real question is: will politicians do what's necessary to fix the problem?" asked Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs.

Britain unveils its first post-Brexit budget on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson expected to press ahead with major spending on infrastructure while also addressing the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

Shares in the energy-dependent Gulf plunged to multi-year lows Sunday after OPEC's failure to agree on a coronavirus action plan prompted fears of an all-out oil price war.

Hiring is surging and wages are rising in the United States as the year begins, but the coronavirus is poised to infect the economy and hamper President Donald Trump's re-election bid.

OPEC and its allies failed to reach a deal on oil production cuts on Friday, after Moscow refused to tighten supply to counter the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

Lebanon has a long history of economic and political instability. In the past, local insurers have been successful at navigating this challenging environment. However, recent civil unrest and a ballooning public debt have increased the level of economic uncertainty, which is negatively impacting the credit quality of Lebanon's insurance market.

In a new Best's Special Report, "Lebanese Insurance Market Faces Mounting Uncertainty", AM Best notes that in contrast with the wider Middle East and North Africa region, the Lebanese insurance market overall has an asset allocation that favors high levels of cash and fixed income instruments over higher risk investments. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Lebanese insurers' investments are exposed to domestic issuers, and consequently to the socio-economic and political turmoil the country is experiencing. Specifically, uncertainties regarding the credit quality of Lebanese government debt pose the most imminent threat to domestic insurers' balance sheets.

All eyes are on Russia at the gathering of OPEC countries and their allies Friday, with the cartel hoping to convince Moscow to back drastic production cuts to counter the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

Airlines face a revenue hit of up to $113 billion in 2020 due to coronavirus, a trade group warned Thursday, as more consumers cancel trips due to the outbreak.