North Korea Rhetoric Acts as Defense Contractor Gift

The rhetoric out of North Korea is acting as a drag to the broader markets, but don’t tell that to the defense sector. Of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks, only four are up. Two of those are health care and two have larger defense operations under Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and under United Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UTX). The move impacting the markets is on news that Secretary of Defense Hagel is sending a U.S. defense missile battery system to Guam after calling the North Korean threat a real and clear danger.

When governments threaten with the use of nuclear weapons, the world still listens. The flip side to this is that the news acts a bit like a gift to defense contractors. It is pretty hard to say that you are shutting down military spending when you have a dictator talking about nuking you.

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) is up 0.7% at $95.74 and is within a dollar of the 52-week high.

Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) is up 1.4% at $70.40 anhd also with $1 of a year high.

General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) is up 1.8% at $68.21 and is still close to 10% under its 52-week high of $74.05.

Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) is up 1.1% at $58.17 and its 52-week high is $59.34.

Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK) is trading up only 0.15% at $70.72 against a 52-week high of $72.57, but that company has handily risen to domestic bullet demand in the United States.

There is still no positive development for gold.