Weir reiterates guidance, GSK hikes expectations after strong quarter

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 37 points higher on Wednesday, having closed down 0.08% on Tuesday at 7,321.72.

Stocks to watch

Mining engineering company Weir has reiterated its guidance for "strong growth" this year despite orders slipping in the third quarter. Orders from continuing operations totalled £636m in the three months to 30 September, down from £651m in the same period a year before. Nevertheless, chief executive Jon Stanton said the company performed "in line with our expectations", as the company maintained its forecasts for "strong growth in constant currency revenue and operating profit" for the 2023 full year. Separately, Weir announced the appointment of Brian Puffer as its new chief financial officer, joining the company from BP where he serves as chief financial and risk officer of the Integrated Supply and Trading division.

GSK reported strong year-to-date and third-quarter performances on Wednesday, leading to an upgrade in its full-year guidance. Total third-quarter sales increased 10%, or 16% excluding Covid-related factors, driven by a 33% growth in vaccine sales, particularly Shingrix and Arexvy. The company's operating profit and earnings per share also showed substantial growth, supported by lower charges for contingent consideration liabilities, though partially offset by increased research and development investment and reduced Covid solutions sales.

Newspaper round-up

WeWork plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as the SoftBank Group-backed company struggles with a massive debt pile and hefty losses. - Guardian

Bill payers could be on the hook for almost £6bn to cover the cost of bailing out suppliers that went bust during the energy crisis, according to the government’s spending watchdog. The public accounts committee (PAC) has issued a “sobering reminder” that the government has no guarantee that it will be able to recover almost £3bn in costs for rescuing about 1.5m households affected by the collapse of Bulb Energy. – Guardian

Britain’s middle classes are working closer to state pension age than any other cohort of society amid a surge in economic inactivity, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. Workers in the squeezed middle are less likely to retire in their late 50s or early 60s than either the rich, who can afford it, or the poor, who are more likely to be out of work because of sickness or disability, a report by the think tank found. – Telegraph

Metro Bank, Starling, TSB and Monzo are the mainstream banks that received the highest rates of fraudulent payments last year, according to research that sheds light on which firms are being targeted by scammers. The Payment Systems Regulator yesterday released industry figures for so-called authorised push payment (APP) fraud, which is when a bank customer is conned into sending a payment to a fraudulent account they believe is legitimate. – The Times

The government is under pressure to intervene in the Barclay family’s £1 billion Middle East-backed bid to regain control of the Telegraph group. Danny Kruger, the Conservative MP for Devizes, a former Daily Telegraph writer, wrote to Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, last week urging her to step in to ensure that the Barclays’ deal is subject to “proper scrutiny”. – The Times

US close

US stocks closed higher on Tuesday as investors digested a flurry of data in a busy week for economic indicators, earnings and central bank action.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.38% at 33,052.87, while the S&P 500 was 0.65% stronger at 4,193.80 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.48% firmer at 12,851.24.

The Dow closed 123.91 points higher on Tuesday as economic data came in mixed, with leading indicators very much in focus ahead of the two-day policy decision meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee which concludes on Wednesday.

On the macro front, the Chicago manufacturing PMI fell from 44.1 to 44.0 in October, its 14th straight month below the 50-point level which separates contraction with expansion.

Elsewhere, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to a five-month low of 102.6 this month, from a revised 104.3 in September, though above the 100 reading expected.