WH Smith FY earnings seen at upper end of guidance, Rio Tinto delivers first ore at Gudai-Darri

Stocks to watch

Newsagent WH Smith said on Wednesday that it expects annual results to be at the upper end of guidance as revenues surged past pre-Covid levels for the first time, driven by a recovery in the travel market.

WH Smith, which runs stores on the high street as well as train stations and airports, said sales in the 15 weeks ended 11 June were up 107% on the same period in 2019.

Mining giant Rio Tinto said on Wednesday that it had delivered first ore at its Gudai-Darri greenfield mine in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Rio Tinto said the first lot of autonomous AutoHaul trains were loaded with ore from Gudai-Darri's process plant before travelling a new 166-kilometre rail line that connects to the group's existing rail and port infrastructure.

Newspaper round-up

Global fossil fuel company BP has bought 40.5% of a renewable energy hub in the Pilbara, billed as having potential to become one of the biggest suppliers of green hydrogen in the world. The company will also operate the Asian Renewable Energy Hub, which has plans to generate up to 26GW of wind and solar energy – about a third of the electricity generated in Australia today. - Guardian

Airlines have been told to review their schedules by the government to avoid more flight chaos, as airports and unions said the problems behind recent cancellations would not be fixed by summer. The Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority said airlines should ensure flights on sale are "deliverable", and cancellations should be made "at the earliest possibility". - Guardian

The UK is poised to snub China's role in its nuclear ambitions under plans that will grant ministers the power to intervene in project decisions that pose a risk to national security. Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is pushing ahead with proposals that will grant the Government a "special share" when it takes a 20% share in the planned Sizewell C station in Suffolk. - Telegraph

Coinbase Global is shedding about 1,100 jobs in preparation for what the chief executive of the cryptocurrency trading exchange warned could be a "crypto winter" as the US economy edges towards recession. The cuts, about a fifth of San Francisco-based company's workforce, come as panic selling grips the cryptocurrency market, with bitcoin, the world's most actively traded digital asset, losing 60% of its value since a record high in November. - The Times

Hermann Hauser, the co-founder of Arm Holdings, has said the company listing in the UK is a matter of "technological sovereignty" for Europe. "This means you have a full set of all the critical technologies you need to run a country and economy properly. Not being technology sovereign means you become dependent on other countries," he told The Times yesterday. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday following sharp losses in the two preceding sessions.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.50% at 30,364.83, while the S&P 500 was 0.38% weaker at 3,735.48 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.18% stronger at 10,828.35.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com