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Business is booming for the world’s biggest defence companies. The sector’s order books are near record highs after growing by more than 10 per cent in just two years because of the Ukraine war and rising geopolitical conflict elsewhere.

An analysis by the Financial Times of 15 defence groups, including the largest US contractors, Britain’s BAE Systems and South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, found that at the end of 2022 — the latest for which full-year data is available — their combined order backlogs were $777.6bn, up from $701.2bn two years earlier.

Momentum continued into 2023. In the first six months of this year combined backlogs at these companies stood at $764bn. Read our full analysis, which also details investors’ sustained interest in the sector.

Related reads:

Bid for lunch with the FT’s Martin Wolf, Gideon Rachman or our editor, Roula Khalaf, with all proceeds going to the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign charity. Bid now or find out who else is on the menu at ft.com/appeal.

Five more top stories

1. Dealmaking sank below $3tn for the first time in a decade in 2023, with about $2.9tn worth of transactions struck globally this year, down 17 per cent from 2022. It was the first time since 2008-09 that the value of deals announced fell more than 10 per cent for two consecutive years, said the London Stock Exchange Group, which produced the data. Here’s why mergers and acquisitions are going through a lull.

2. Net foreign investment in China-listed shares this year has dropped 87 per cent, with offshore investors selling more than $28bn worth of shares in the past five months amid mounting doubts about Beijing’s willingness to take serious action to boost flagging growth. Read the full story.

3. Exclusive: Higher demand for LinkedIn from advertisers leaving Elon Musk’s X is driving up ad prices on the platform, with annual advertising revenues at the Microsoft-owned group rising to nearly $4bn in 2023, up 10.1 per cent year on year. Here’s more on what one ad agency called “LinkedIn season”.

4. Apple is resuming sales in the US of its Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 after an appeals court halted a ban handed down by the International Trade Commission. The company had last week pulled the latest models of its smartwatch from its online and physical stores in the US, anticipating the trade tribunal’s ban taking effect. Here’s the latest from Apple’s ongoing patent battle.

5. Jacques Delors, one of the main architects of today’s EU, has died at the age of 98. The former president of the European Commission was one of the most consequential figures in postwar Europe, presiding over the creation of the single market and laying the groundwork for economic and monetary union. Learn more about his life and impact here.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Netflix’s rivals: US entertainment giants such as Disney and Paramount are facing pressure to shrink and slash costs after losing more than $5bn this year from their streaming services. 

• Post Office: A public inquiry has shone a harsh light on how lawyers for the UK institution used contentious and aggressive legal tactics against sub-postmasters.

• Morgan Stanley: Incoming chief executive Ted Pick is set to inherit a bank in good shape but facing far greater challenges than it did a year ago.

• Central banks: The world’s top rate-setters are rethinking their approach to forecasting after their high-profile failures to spot the most recent inflationary outburst.

For more on rate-setters’ battle against inflation, premium subscribers can sign up for our Central Banks newsletter by Chris Giles, or upgrade your subscription here.

The most-read Opinion pieces of 2023

With China regularly dominating global headlines this year, it may come as no surprise that two of the top three most-read FT commentaries of 2023 were about the country.

Helen Thomas’s warning that Beijing’s dominance in the electric vehicle market was leaving Europe in the dust resonated with readers, and came as the EU tried to shield its own carmakers with an anti-subsidy probe into Chinese manufacturers. Last month, Ruchir Sharma took a different tone, provocatively declaring: “It’s a post-China world now.” His piece arguing that China’s rise was reversing came in third and attracted hundreds of comments.

The first runner-up was about a decidedly different topic: flight attendant uniforms. HTSI editor Jo Ellison’s views on the no-nonsense, practical redesign by a Savile Row tailor for the UK’s national carrier were humorously summed up by the following headline: “No sex please, we’re British Airways.”

Additional contributions from Sarah Ebner and Emily Goldberg