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BAE Systems posts better-than-expected FY profit growth, Glencore FY profits decline on weak coal performance
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Wednesday 18 Feb 2026
(Sharecast News) - LONDON PRE-OPEN
The FTSE 100 was expected to open 26.2 points higher ahead of the bell on Wednesday, after wrapping up the previous session 0.79% firmer at 10,556.17.
STOCKS TO WATCH
Weapons maker BAE Systems reported a better-than-expected rise in annual profits on Wednesday as it cashed in on higher government defence spending amid rising geopolitical tensions. BAE said full-year underlying operating profits jumped 12% to £3.32bn, beating expectations of a 9-11% increase, with its order backlog hitting a record £83.6bn.
Mining giant Glencore posted a decline in full‑year profits on Wednesday, as record copper prices were unable to offset weaker earnings from its coal division. Glencore said core earnings fell 6% year‑on‑year to $13.5bn, though the company said it would still return $2bn to shareholders, including an $800m top‑up distribution. Revenues grew 7% to $247.53bn.
Hotel and resorts group PPHE Hotel has sold a longstanding development site in Manhattan to an unnamed US real estate developer for $33.5m. The asset, located near Hudson Yards, was first purchased in 2019 with a view to developing the company's first hotel in the US, but PPHE later decided against it after the regulatory landscape for ground-up hotel developments in New York changed. Sales proceeds will be used to repay the associated debt of $8.3m, with the balance to be deployed into core operations.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
British Steel has secured an order worth tens of millions of pounds to supply rail for a high-speed electric railway in Turkey, amid continuing uncertainty over the long-term future of the government-controlled steelworks in Scunthorpe. The site will supply 36,000 tonnes of rail to ERG International Group, the company announced, in what it called an "eight-figure agreement". - Guardian
Japan has drawn up plans for investments in US oil, gas and critical mineral projects worth about $36bn under the first wave of a deal with Donald Trump. The US president and Sanae Takaichi, Japan's prime minister, announced a trio of projects including a power plant in Portsmouth, Ohio, billed by the Trump administration as the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in US history. - Guardian
Ed Miliband will fail to meet his net zero targets unless he spends an extra £75bn on renewables, a leading energy consultancy has said. Wood Mackenzie has warned the UK does not currently have enough wind and solar to decarbonise the grid, claiming nearly all of the Energy Secretary's 2030 clean power targets are "out of reach". - Telegraph
Elon Musk's SpaceX is bidding for a secretive contract to build swarms of voice-controlled drones for the US military. The Pentagon has launched a $100m competition to develop an AI bot that can be used to translate voice or written commands from soldiers to a fleet of drones. Mr Musk's SpaceX is one of the companies pitching for a share of the work, Bloomberg reported. - Telegraph
Regulators are investigating a potential fraud after the collapse of a high-street law firm left hundreds of staff and customers in limbo. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed that at least £1m in client funds was thought to be missing from PM Law, which operated 24 branches stretching from Yorkshire to Kent. - The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices closed slightly higher on Tuesday as traders returned from the President's Day break.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.07% at 49,533.19, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.10% to 6,843.22 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.14% firmer at 22,578.38.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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