Pure Harvest Smart Farms grows fruits and vegetables in greenhouses in the United Arab Emirates desert, and has partnerships to do the same in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

“Our pilot in the desert … showed very promising results — the potential for year-round local production at very high quality and at a very good cost structure,” CEO and Co-founder Sky Kurtz said.

The Abu Dhabi-based agriculture technology start-up announced Monday it secured $60 million in funding to expand its operations in the Middle East.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said he sees plenty of signs to be optimistic about the stock market.

“It’s a good time to invest,” the “Mad Money” host said.

“A lot of it has to do with things that have not been done in the last year,” he added, such as travel.

Sweden and Latvia announced on Tuesday morning that they were pausing their rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford.

So far, 13 countries in the European Union have taken this decision, while a few others have stopped using individual batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Concerns over the vaccine could put at risk the EU’s target of vaccinating 70% of the adult population by the end of the summer.

With the economy about to boom, the Fed’s easy policies will be in the spotlight Wednesday when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks to the press after the Fed’s two-day meeting.

The Fed will release new economic and interest rate forecasts, which could show Fed officials expect to raise rates by 2023.

BlackRock’s Rick Rieder said Powell’s briefing could be “exciting to see” and the Fed meeting could be the central bank’s “March Madness” for markets, since the chairman could begin to reveal some views on the future path of Fed policy.

Ether, the world’s second-largest digital currency, hit a record high on Thursday.

The price of ether hit $1,918.52 during morning trade in Asia but has since pared some gains, according to CoinDesk data.

The rally in bitcoin, which surpassed $52,000 for the first time on Wednesday, is helping to push up ether as well.

Germany is the latest country to discover a new mutation of the coronavirus, with a new variant identified among a group of hospital patients in Bavaria.

An unknown variant of the virus had been discovered among 35 patients at a hospital in the Bavarian ski town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southeast Germany.

Further tests are being carried out on virus samples from the patients.

Over the past few years, the EU has struggled to push its multilateral trade agenda.

Despite this challenge, the European Commission believes it is time to develop commerce around the world even further, so it can better deal with the economic shock from the coronavirus crisis.

But by proclaiming a new more “assertive” position, there could be ramifications for China and the United States.

Dubai’s real estate market has made a “hard landing” but lower prices may be a good time for investors looking to buy, said Hussain Sajwani, Damac chairman.

Now is a “great time” for people to buy real estate in Dubai, he said, estimating that resale units could cost 10% less than a new development at this point.

The market is likely to remain subdued for the next two years as the city recovers from the pandemic, Sajwani said.