Most of Wall Street drifts as defense companies rally
By STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — Modest moves for Wall Street overall on Thursday are masking some big gains underneath the surface for makers of weapons and other military equipment after President Donald Trump said he wants to increase spending on them sharply.
The S&P 500 dipped 0.1% in midday trading, coming off its first loss in four days, and remains near its all-time high set earlier this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 272 points, or 0.6%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.
The majority of stocks climbed as yields ticked higher in the bond market following mixed reports on the U.S. economy.
The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, a potential indicator of increasing layoffs, but by no more than economists expected. Other reports said U.S. workers improved their productivity by more in the summer than economists expected, while the U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly shrank in October.
On Wall Street, defense-industry companies led the market after Trump said he wants to increase U.S. military spending to $1.5 trillion in 2027 from $901 billion in order to build the “Dream Military.”
Northrop Grumman climbed 4.3%, Lockheed Martin soared 5.3% and L3Harris Technologies jumped 5.8%. They more than made up their losses from the prior day, when Trump complained defense contractors were making military equipment too slowly.
RTX came under particular criticism by Trump, and its stock rose less than peers. It added 2% after Trump said that it was the “slowest in increasing their volume.”
Trump signed an executive order Wednesday calling on the Pentagon to ensure future contracts with contractors contain a provision prohibiting their ability to buy back their own stock during a period of underperformance on U.S. government contracts.
Another winner on Wall Street was Constellation Brands, which climbed 4.8% after the beer and wine company reported a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
That helped offset drops for several technology stocks that held back the overall market. Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 after dropping 2.3%, which gave back some of its big gain of nearly 40% last year.
Elsewhere, oil prices jumped to continue their zigzags since Trump ousted the leader of Venezuela last weekend.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude climbed 1.8% to $57.02. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2% to $61.14 per barrel.
Venezuela is potentially sitting on more oil than any other country in the world, and any increase in production could push further downward on prices, which have already fallen on expectations for plentiful supplies. But billions of dollars of investment are likely necessary to get Venezuela’s aging infrastructure in good-enough shape to ramp up production sharply.
It’s not just Venezuela where the U.S. military could see action, as Trump talks about “troubled and dangerous times.” The president in recent days has also called for taking over the Danish territory of Greenland for national security reasons and has suggested he’s open to carrying out military operations in Colombia.
In stock markets abroad, indexes moved modestly in Europe following a weak finish in Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.6% for one of the world’s bigger moves, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.2%.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.17% from 4.15% late Wednesday.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
