Foreign companies are under growing pressure in China from anti-corruption, security and other investigations as President Xi Jinping's government tightens control over business, clashing with efforts to lure back investors after the pandemic.

This week, Bain & Co. said police questioned staff in its Shanghai office. The consulting company gave no details of what investigators were looking for. Last month, the corporate due diligence firm Mintz Group said its Beijing office was raided by police who detained five employees. Also last month, an employee of a Japanese drug maker was detained on spying charges and the government announced a security review of memory chip maker Micron Inc.

The European economy scraped out meager growth of 0.1% in the first three months of the year, barely gaining momentum after dodging a winter recession as challenges persist from inflation that corrodes people's willingness to spend.

Friday's less-than-stellar figure follows disappointing growth estimates from the U.S. a day earlier that kept alive fears of a looming recession in the world's largest economy.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled Friday to release a highly-anticipated review of its supervision of Silicon Valley Bank, the go-to bank for venture capital firms and technology start-ups that failed spectacularly in March, setting off a crisis of confidence for the banking industry.

The review, due to be released at 11 a.m. eastern, is expected to examine how regulators may have missed warning signs in Silicon Valley Bank's business and whether they could have been addressed before the bank failed. Further, the report is expected to look at what regulators could do better to prevent a similar bank failure in the future.

A restaurant on the outskirts of Nairobi skimps on the size of its chapatis — a flaky, chewy Kenyan flatbread — to save on cooking oil. Cash-strapped Pakistanis reluctantly go vegetarian, dropping beef and chicken from their diets because they can no longer afford meat. In Hungary, a cafe pulls burgers and fries off the menu, trying to dodge the high cost of oil and beef.

Around the world, food prices are persistently, painfully high. Puzzlingly, too. On global markets, the prices of grains, vegetable oil, dairy and other agricultural commodities have fallen steadily from record highs. But the relief hasn't made it to the real world of shopkeepers, street vendors and families trying to make ends meet.

Most U.S. airlines lost money in the first quarter, traditionally the weakest time of year for travel, but they are all eagerly looking ahead to a summer of full planes and high fares.

American Airlines and Southwest Airlines said Thursday that they expect to be solidly profitable in the second quarter. They joined Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in giving an upbeat outlook for the April-through-June period, which includes the start of the peak travel season.

Applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell last week as the labor market continues to show strength despite some weakness in other parts of the economy.

The number of Americans filing for jobless claims for the week ending April 22 fell by 16,000 to 230,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The U.S. economy slowed sharply from January through March, decelerating to just a 1,1% annual pace as higher interest rates hammered the housing market and businesses reduced inventories.

Thursday's estimate from the Commerce Department showed that the nation's gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of economic output — weakened after growing 3.2% from July through September and 2.6% from October through November.

The European Union moved Wednesday to overhaul its euro single currency rulebook as the 27-nation bloc's economies creak under high debt caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from Russia's war on Ukraine.

"Our common EU fiscal rules date back to the 1990s and we have since withstood major economic shocks," European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said. "We now face different challenges and economic priorities, and our rules need to reflect these changes."

British regulators on Wednesday blocked Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard, thwarting the biggest tech deal in history over worries that it would stifle competition in the fast-growing cloud gaming market.

The Competition and Markets Authority said in its final report that "the only effective remedy" to the substantial loss of competition "is to prohibit the Merger." The companies have vowed to appeal.

Boeing lost $425 million in the first quarter — more than Wall Street expected — but said Wednesday that it plans to boost production of its best-selling plane later this year.