Thailand has reached an agreement with Iran to allow Thai oil vessels safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the Southeast Asian nation’s Prime Minister said on Saturday.

The e-commerce moratorium is a global agreement among World Trade Organization members which bans customs duties being applied to electronic transmissions such as digital downloads and streaming.

China’s commerce ministry has initiated two counter-probes into US ‌practices that hamper the flow of Chinese products into the United States, it said on Friday, refraining from immediate retaliation to US measures announced earlier this month.

Gold demand in India saw a slight ‌uptick this week as softer bullion prices attracted some buyers, though many remained cautious and held off for further price drop, while premiums in China narrowed as physical demand slowed.

It covers cross-border transmissions such as software downloads, e-books, music and movie streaming and video games

Sixty-six World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries, representing 70 percent of global trade, have adopted a pathway to bring into force electronic commerce (e-Commerce) agreement through interim arrangements.

The two India-flagged ⁠vessels have crossed the Gulf area and are in ​the eastern Strait of Hormuz, the data showed

Here are the latest economic events in the Middle East war

Here are facts and figures about how maritime insurance works -- and the impact from the war sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which has virtually cut off shipping in the strait.

US consumer sentiment fell more than expected in March, touching a three-month low, as war in the Middle ​East stoked inflation worries and cast a shadow over the economic outlook.

Unusual bursts of trading on the oil and stock markets this week, just minutes before social media posts on the Iran war by President Donald Trump, have added to suspicions of insider trading linked to his administration.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has launched an interagency task force to help secure the passage of fertilizers through the Strait of Hormuz, his spokesperson announced on Friday.

Two liquefied petroleum gas tankers, BW Elm and BW Tyr, are crossing the ​Strait of Hormuz bound for India, according to ‌ship tracking data from LSEG and Kpler.

Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, which circumvents the Strait of ​Hormuz, is pumping oil at its full ‌capacity of 7 million barrels a day, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday, citing a person familiar with the ​matter.

Brazilian beef and chicken exporters expect only limited disruption from the Iran war, even as the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz forces companies to ​reroute shipments and absorb higher costs to keep supplies moving.

The dollar rose on Friday and was on course for its strongest monthly gain in ​almost a year, buoyed by safe-haven demand as the Middle East war intensifies and hopes fade for de-escalation.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday that if the energy crisis sparked by the Middle East war dragged on, Germany might have to keep running coal-fired power plants longer than planned.

US officials this week said the historic spike in fuel prices during the war in Iran will be short-term and trumpeted record US production at an industry conference where oil executives and government officials ​from Asia, the Middle East and Europe bemoaned the worst oil and gas supply disruption in decades.

Global oilfield services companies are bracing for a hit to earnings as the Iran war disrupts energy infrastructure across the Middle East and producers hold back ​on new drilling until higher oil prices prove durable.

Oil prices ​rose on Friday and notched weekly gains, reflecting scepticism about prospects for a ceasefire in the ‌month-old Iran war.