In President Donald Trump’s recent congressional address, he has pledged to put an end to sequestration spending cuts and provide a “historic” boost of $54 billion or 10% to the nation’s 2018 defense spending. He also offered a proposal to expend $30 billion on supplementary military this year. This budget proposal has been largely cheered by U.S. defense biggies.

The mixed performance on the bourses as well as a generous flow of funds from the Pentagon forced the major indices of the Aerospace-Defense sector to end in the green over the trailing five trading sessions. However, hawkish comments from Fed officials as well as increased optimism surrounding a possible rate hike this month might have marred growth of capital-intensive defense stocks to a certain extent. Consequently, the S&P 500 Aerospace & Defense (industry) Index inched up 0.5% while the Dow Jones U.S. Aerospace & Defense Index rose 0.8%.

Among this week’s highlights, defense primes Raytheon Company (RTN – Free Report), The Boeing Company (BA – Free Report) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT – Free Report) secured a few big contracts from the Department of Defense (DoD). Meanwhile, Honeywell International Inc. (HON – Free Report) highlighted its growth expectations at the annual investor conference. Also, General Dynamics Corp. (GD – Free Report) raised its quarterly dividend rate while Leidos Holdings Inc. (LDOS – Free Report) released fourth-quarter results.

Recap of the Last Week’s Most Important Stories

1. Defense behemoth Raytheon clinched a foreign military sales (FMS) contract worth $1.07 billion from the U.S. Air Force. Under the terms of the deal, the company will provide an early warning radar system to the Qatar government which will be incorporated into the nation’s integrated air and missile defense enterprise. Work related to this deal is expected to be over by Jun 30, 2021.