Iran's rial currency fell to near-record lows Thursday as concerns grew in Tehran that European nations will start a process to reimpose United Nations sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, further squeezing the country's ailing economy.

The move, termed the "snapback" mechanism by the diplomats who negotiated it into Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, was designed to be veto-proof before the world body and would be likely to go into effect after a 30-day window.

Lebanon's judiciary agreed Tuesday to the release on bail of more than $20 million of former central bank governor Riad Salameh, detained for nearly a year on embezzlement charges, judicial officials said.

Salameh, 75, who headed the central bank for three decades, faces numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.

Stocks slipped in early trading on Wall Street Monday, after a big jump last week on hopes for more interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2% and is just below its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 110 points, or 0.3% as of 9:57 a.m. Eastern time, pulling back from the record it set on Friday. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%.

The end of an exemption on tariff duties for low-value packages coming into the United States is causing multiple international postal services to pause shipping as they await more clarity on the rule.

The exemption, known as the " de minimis" exemption, allows packages worth less than $800 to come into the U.S. duty free. A total of 1.36 billion packages were sent in 2024 under this exemption, for goods worth $64.6 billion, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency.

Just days away from a European deadline, Iran said Friday its foreign minister would hold a telephone conference call with his French, German and British counterparts to avoid the reimposition of United Nations sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program.

The call, planned for Friday by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, comes as the three parties to Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal threaten to reimpose those sanctions under a mechanism known as "snapback" in the accord. The European Union's chief diplomat will also join the call, IRNA said.

The French wine exporters federation said Thursday it was "hugely disappointed" by the European Union's admission that it failed to secure a tariff exemption for the sector in the US-EU trade deal.

"We are certain that this will create major difficulties for the wines and spirits sector," the head of the wine and spirits federation FEVS Gabriel Picard said, while France's minister for trade Laurent Saint-Martin said his government would seek "additional exemptions" as part of the US-EU trade deal.

China has been expanding use of digital currencies as it promotes wider use of its yuan, or renminbi, to reflect its status as the world's second-largest economy and challenge the overwhelming sway of the U.S. dollar in international trade and finance.

Wall Street is ticking lower in premarket trading Thursday as investors perused Walmart's latest financial results ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech on Friday.

Futures for the S&P 500 turned 0.2% lower before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.3%. Nasdaq futures edged 0.1% lower.

U.S. President Donald Trump called Wednesday for Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to step down, expanding pressure on the central bank after recent criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates sooner.

The Brazilian government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to support local companies affected by a 50% tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on several of the country's exports.

Dubbed "Sovereign Brazil," the plan provides for a credit lifeline of 30 billion reais ($5.5 billion), among other measures.