Defense stocks held steady after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday that the Trump administration was thinking about taking stakes in top defense contractors after the US took a 9.9% stake in Intel (INTC).
When asked about the potential for the administration to strike other deals with US companies that do business with the government, Lutnick replied: “Oh, there’s a monstrous discussion about defense.”
“Lockheed Martin makes 97% of their revenue from the US government; they are basically an arm of the US government,” Lutnick said. “But what’s the economics of that? I’m going to leave that to my Secretary of Defense and the deputy Secretary of Defense. These guys are on it, and they’re thinking about it.”
Lockheed Martin (LMT) stock rose 0.4% in premarket trading.
RTX (RTX) shares also rose 0.4%, while L3Harris (LHX) gained 0.2%, and Northrop Grumman (NOC) was roughly flat. Meanwhile, shares of Palantir (PLTR) fell 0.9%.
Lutnick’s comments come after President Trump said Monday morning that he wanted to see “many more cases” like Intel.
“I will make deals like that for our Country all day long,” Trump said.