Curtiss-Wright Lifts 2026 Naval and Aerospace Defense Outlooks on Strong Q2 Demand

The TISCO Economic and Strategic Analysis Center, or TISCO ESU, assesses that global financial markets are entering a phase of capital competition, as governments around the world need to borrow heavily to expand defense budgets while private-sector big tech and hyperscaler firms seek to raise enormous sums to accelerate the buildout of data center infrastructure, chip fabrication plants, AI facilities, and power plants. This is pushing interest rates and government bond yields up by roughly 0.60 to 0.90 percent. Komson Prapakpol, head of the TISCO Economic and Strategic Analysis Center, said the United States plans to expand its defense budget from 1 trillion dollars to 1.5 trillion dollars, an increase of 50 percent, while Japan aims to raise defense spending from below 2 percent to 3.5 percent of GDP, the highest level since the period from 1970 to 1980. Germany and France are also accelerating increases in their security budgets. Thanaphat Thanachat, an analyst at TISCO ESU, said the United States has public debt exceeding 100 percent of GDP, or more than 40 trillion dollars, and a fiscal deficit as high as 6 percent of GDP per year, driving its interest burden to double that of four to five years ago. France's public debt has risen by nearly 20 percent of GDP between 2019 and 2025, with an annual deficit of 5 percent of GDP. As for the interest rate path of the three major central banks, TISCO ESU expects the Federal Reserve to raise rates one more time, by about 0.25 percent, at its December meeting, ending at 4.25 percent, and to hold at that level through 2027 before cutting in 2028. The European Central Bank is expected to raise rates one more time, by about 0.25 percent, in December, while the Bank of Japan is expected to gradually keep raising rates until they reach 1.75 percent in mid-2027. The yield on 10-year U.S. government bonds is expected in the base case to hold steady at 5 percent through the end of 2026, but if the Federal Reserve fails to control inflation, the worst case could see the bond yield rise to 6 percent.

It has emerged that negotiators for the United States and Iran are exploring a phased agreement aimed at Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the United States lifting its naval blockade of Iranian ports. According to people familiar with the talks, the two countries are pursuing discussions aimed at breaking the deadlock on the 24th, on the sidelines of related meetings of the United Nations General Assembly being held in New York, with Qatari officials mediating the negotiations. The phased agreement is expected to take a form similar to a memorandum of understanding signed by the United States and Iran in mid-June, but the ceasefire that was established, albeit precariously, on the back of that memorandum collapsed just a few weeks later. Reuters was first to report on the talks over a phased agreement. A White House official said President Trump remains open to dialogue with Iran, while stressing that the United States has no need to negotiate, as intensified sanctions and the naval blockade are pressuring the Iranian economy and the United States holds the upper hand. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi armed group said in a statement on Telegram that it had attacked Saudi Arabia twice using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. The first attack targeted a key site in the Saudi capital Riyadh, and the second targeted a Saudi Aramco facility in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, according to the spokesman.

Tutor Perini Corporation announced that its subsidiary, Perini Management Services, Inc., has been awarded a contract valued at approximately $43 million by the U.S. Coast Guard to design and construct improvements at the Coast Guard's property at East Tongue Point in Astoria, Oregon. The project, the Phase 2 Astoria Fast Response Cutter Homeport effort, covers construction of facilities to accommodate the homeporting of four Fast Response Cutters. Those new facilities consist of a new fixed pier, two floating docks, and a new uplands Maintenance Weapons Division cutter support facility, along with demolition of existing facilities, in-water dredging, and utility and site improvements. Design work is expected to begin in late September 2026, with substantial completion anticipated in May 2029. The contract value will be added to the Company's backlog in the third quarter of 2026.