Here are the top stories we'll be watching this week.
After his controversial UK visit,
Donald Trump flies to Helsinki to meet Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
Leading aluminium producer Alcoa opens the mining sector's
second-quarter results season.
And aviation enthusiasts will be looking skyward
for an upbeat message from the UK's Farnborough Airshow.
First to Helsinki, host city for the first full summit
between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Both Moscow and Washington say they
are keen to resume bilateral relations, which
have soured in recent years.
Despite being beset by allegations of collusion
between his election campaign and the Kremlin,
Mr Trump has stressed the need to engage
with the Russian president, and both men
are expected to use the summit to discuss the war in Syria,
the conflict in Ukraine, and the future of nuclear weapons.
The FT's correspondent in Moscow, Henry Foy, has more.
Well, it's safe to say that expectations for real agreement
and concrete progress from this summit are at rock bottom.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump are seeking
to re-establish a bilateral relationship really
from a standing start.
Of course, there's a lot of issues
that are clouding potential agreements,
such as the ongoing investigation
into any collusion between Mr Trump's campaign
and Moscow, of course the alleged meddling in the US
election by the Russians, and US sanctions that have
dented the Russian economy.
So really, the focus, I think, in Helsinki
is going to be on optics.
There's a lot of US allies in Europe
and elsewhere in the west that are a little bit concerned
that Mr Trump's European tour is likely
going to end with handshakes and back slaps
from the Russian president.
In the mining sector, investors will
be looking for an uptick in Alcoa's earnings
when the aluminium producer reports
its results on Wednesday.
Prices for aluminium jumped in the second quarter of the year,
following the imposition of US sanctions
against Russian producer Rusal.
That move cut access to international markets
and left buyers scrambling to secure
other sources of the metal, leading
to a market high in April.
Since then, prices for aluminium have
fallen after the US Treasury indicated
that sanctions on Rusal could be eased,
so long as its founder, Oleg Deripaska, gave up control.
Here's the FT's commodities correspondent, Henry Sanderson.
US aluminium producer Alcoa reports second-quarter results
this week, and analysts will be looking very closely
for signs of what's going to happen
for the rest of this year, because while aluminium
prices shored up in the second quarter
on the back of sanctions, Trump's administration has
since eased those sanctions and allowed Russia's Rusal a route
to getting back to the market.
People will be looking at these results
also for a sign of the impact of Trump's trade tariffs,
because Trump has launched retaliatory tariffs
against imports of aluminium from China, Canada,
and other countries.
So people will be looking for any remarks
about what this means for the domestic US market.
And finally, aviation investors and enthusiasts
will get to see the industry's latest innovations from Monday
at the UK's leading airshow in Farnborough.
The weeklong trade show will attract executives and experts
from all over the world.
Industry followers want to know how orders are holding up,
what projects aerospace companies are working on,
and what investors can expect in the way of returns in the year
ahead.
Here's Peggy Hollinger, the FT's industry editor,
with her take on what to expect.
Airshows are normally a frenzy of deal-making
and big orders and big egos, but this year we're
not expecting to see a huge number of orders
as we have done in past years.
Airlines are having to digest the aircraft they've already
bought.
And in fact, the aircraft makers are
having to deal with record backlogs
and desperately trying to produce
the aircraft that they've already taken orders for.
So if there are no big orders, what else are we looking for?
Well, we're not going to get a new aircraft from Boeing.
At least, that's what we're being
told very strongly by the supply chain in the industry.
So really, what the focus will be
on is both on the supply chain, as the aircraft makers attempt
to ensure that their suppliers are fit and ready to ramp up
to the production rates they need
to deliver the aircraft, but also new technologies.
We'll have a lot of focus on the electrification of aircraft,
on autonomy, on robotisation.
I think there will be a real focus to push the view out
to the future.
And that's what the week ahead looks like from the Financial
Times in London.