What a twisted world we live in. Trump's "response" to the "Syria gassed it's own people and we demand blood" crowd, otherwise known as neocons, or as I like to think of them, "war criminals" made someone a lot of money. Actually anyone who invested in the makers of the Tomahawk Cruise Missile (and other missile systems), must have been thrilled because the next day, they collectively added FIVE BILLION DOLLARS to their net worth.

From Fortune online:

The Tomahawk missile used in the strike is made by Raytheon), whose stock opened 2.5% higher Friday, adding more than $1 billion to the defense contractor's market capitalization.

The shares of other missile and weapons manufacturers, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, each rose as much as 1%, collectively gaining nearly $5 billion in market value as soon as they began trading, even as the broader market fell.

I don't own any stock in defense contractors but I'm sure anyone who does has been praying for a more aggressive foreign policy (i.e., more bombs that go boom, more troops that need showers that electrocute them, etc.), and in general a more robust use of are military "assets around the globe.

Of course, who knows what will happen to the stock prices of defense contractors after the Trump's Secretary of Defense, General Mattis, had this to say yesterday about the War on Syria ISIS:

Tensions between the United States and Russia will not "spiral out of control" following last week's U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday, describing it as a one-off response to Syria's use of banned chemical weapons. [...]

"I'm confident the Russians will act in their own best interest and there is nothing in their best interest to say they want this situation to go out of control." [...]

At the same time, he acknowledged that Trump had only authorized the single attack, meaning the U.S. military would not automatically have the authority to strike again should Washington determine another case of chemical weapons use. [...]

Mattis also sought to downplay concerns about Pentagon mission creep, saying the U.S. military's focus in Syria was still fighting Islamic State militants, not becoming entangled in Syria's messy civil war between Assad and his opponents.

This is not the kind of thing the shareholders (and that includes all the senior executives) of Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics want to hear. Guess we will just have to wait and see how the Big Casino views Mattis' comments. Still yesterday all the "goldbugs" must have been happy:

Stocks are somewhat rattled, the S&P 500 down 0.65% and the Nasdaq off 0.8%, but money is flowing into U.S. government paper and gold. [...]

Gold is higher by 1.6% to $1,273.50 per ounce.

Nevertheless, Trump's election and his talk of vastly larger defense spending (does that count as infrastructure spending?) coupled with all the drum beating by the usual (and not so usual) pro-war crowd has financial analysts bullish on defense stocks:

Needless to say, the defense and aerospace sector has been red-hot since the election of Donald Trump back in November. Toss in the uncertainty in the Middle East and on the Korean peninsula, and you have all the ingredients in place for the sector to continue to draw investor interest. With the defense sector up nearly 8% this year, versus the S&P 500’s 5.5%, it makes sense to stick with the leaders.

In a new Deutsche Bank research report, outstanding analyst Myles Walton makes the case that Wall Street in general remains more positive on the defense stocks ...

Yay for more bombs, missiles, warplanes and things that go boom in other countries thanks to our "global force for good", otherwise known as the US Armed Forces. Investors in defense stocks salute you! Go Team USA! Onward to victory. Or at least the use of more weapons that must be restocked by American workers at American companies - at least some American workers, anyway, right?

The Pentagon uses Israeli drones and Swedish antitank weapons, while too many spare parts for American military hardware are today made in China.

Still, what's good for defense contractors is good for America. No one who invests in those companies can argue with that. Not when we need new and better weapons to fight our potential(?) enemies and Congress seems inclined to give Trump whatever he wants - for the troops, of course. At least while they are fighting, that is. And that's all that matters, anyway.