June 25, 2008 at 2:00 pm by Tom Lydon
A double whammy of bad news took the aerospace and defense exchange traded fund (ETF) lower today.
First, orders for durable goods (those items meant to last three years or more) were stagnant last month. Metals, machinery and autos were among the items that felt slowing demand in May, reports Bob Willis for Bloomberg.
It was, however, the flat reading that economists were expecting. Any strength in May came from a 10.3% jump in demand for commercial aircraft and a 14.9% increase in orders for military planes and parts, reports Martin Crutsinger for the Associated Press.
The transportation ETF, iShares Dow Jones US Transportation (IYT), got a slight lift thanks to the orders in planes offsetting weakness in auto sales.
Second, Boeing (BA) shares fell to a 30-month low after Goldman Sachs downgraded its shares to "sell." The analyst cited high oil prices and the slowing economy in his rating, reports the Seattle Times. Boeing is 7.7% of the PowerShares Aerospace & Defense (PPA).
IYT is up 10.3% year-to-date, while PPA is down 13.1%.
For full disclosure, some of Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of IYT.
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