The top four aerospace and defense ETFs are reacting to President Donald Trump’s plan to bring U.S. troops in Syria back home as he believes “our primary mission” of fighting the Islamic State terrorist group is “almost complete.”
“I want to get out, I want to bring the troops back home, I want to start rebuilding our nation,” Trump said Tuesday during a news conference at the White House with leaders of Baltic nations.
Trump did not approve a specific withdrawal date at Tuesday’s meeting, the official told Reuters. He wants to ensure Islamic State militants are defeated but wants other countries in the region and the United Nations to step up and help provide stability in Syria, the official said.
However, Pentagon officials have made it clear they do not want to pull out of Syria and risk enabling President Bashar al Assad and his allies Russia and Iran to take control.
4 Aerospace & Defense ETFs React
Let’s take a look at how the top 4 ETFs Aerospace & Defense ETFs are trading Wednesday as of 12:15 p.m. Eastern Time.
- iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) down .83%.
- SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR) down .57%.
- PowerShares Aerospace & Defense Equity (PPA) down .69%
- Direxion Daily Aerospace & Defense Bull (DFEN) down 2.68%
The longer the U.S. is at war, the more money will be spent on aerospace and defense companies. Without a war, people may begin to sell their shares and invest their money elsewhere. We can see that the top 4 Aerospace and Defense ETFs are all down after Trump’s announcement.
“America First” Foreign Policy
Trump’s campaign for the White House has always called for an “America First” foreign policy.
At a rally in Ohio last week, Trump said “we’re knocking the hell out of” Islamic State and he predicted a U.S. departure from Syria “very soon.” He added, “Let other people take care of it now.”
The U.S. has deployed about 2,000 troops on the ground, including U.S. special operations forces whose advising has helped Kurdish militia and other U.S.-backed fighters capture territory from Islamic State.
According to Reuters, U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. troops in the Middle East as the head of Central Command, estimated that more than 90 percent of the group’s territory in Syria had been taken back from the militants since 2014.
Worries Over Withdrawing All U.S. Forces
Trump’s talk of leaving Syria soon contradicts “everything that he has said his foreign policy would stand for — except for his resistance to getting involved in new foreign wars,” Charles Lister, director of the Extremism and Counterterrorism Program at the Middle East Institute told Bloomberg Politics.
Lister said a U.S. withdrawal would be seen as “empowering Iran further in the Middle East, not weakening it.”
Trump’s advisers have encouraged him to keep a small force in Syria to ensure the militants are defeated.
However, it sounds like Trump is ready to withdraw all U.S. forces.
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