The iShares Dow Jones US Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSE:ITA) was on the rise Monday morning, amid President Trump’s weekend arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
The president, who last week made his first foreign journey since taking office, established a massive deal over the weekend to supply weapons to the Arab nation. The pact will be worth $350 million over a period of ten years.
CNBC notes that several defense-related stocks surged to fresh all-time highs on the news Monday morning:
Shortly after market open, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) was up about 2 percent, Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) was up more than 1.4 percent, Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) climbed 1 percent and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) was up about half a percent. All four stocks reached new highs.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) shares were also up around 2%, after agreeing to sell military and passenger aircraft to Saudi Arabia during Trump’s visit there.
Meanwhile, tthe ITA ETF which includes the companies mentioned above, was trading at $154.97 per share on Monday morning, up $1.82 (+1.19%). Year-to-date, ITA has gained 10.28%, versus a 7.04% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
ITA currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #4 of 34 ETFs in the Industrials Equities ETFs category.