No real suprise here, military is a strong sector. Sometimes I wonder if Obama's commitment in Afghanistan isn't based on a sort of Keynesian reasoning that proping up military spending in Afghanistan has a multiplier that will help the US economy as a whole, if such money was diverted he would have a hard time getting it spent given republican deficit hawkishness/obstruction.

It is possible that such articles in the Post are bad for these companies. The market was up today but names like MANT (Mantech does Convoy security in Iraq and Afghanistan) got hammered down 8%. KBR(they do chow and a lot of lower level clearance work,) was up 4% because parent company HAL(Halliburton) had a terrific quater and was also up 4%. A problem with the smaller firms is that they can swing wildly on contracts and rumors. There was a downgrade on MANT so the theory that the post series had an effect is lacking. The ETF on Aerospace and defense PPA made 1.4% on the day. GD (General Dynamics) was mentioned and did alright gainning 1% today. LMT (Lockheed Martin) was down slightly. NO(Northrop Grumman) was up slightly today and on the year is flat but outperforming the market. DXS (Spade) has outperformed the market for 10 years... A lot of folks with top secret clearances also work for companies like Pantex. It is all big business.