The new world order is pushing aerospace and defense stocks higher, for better or for worse, says Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown. Shares of defense contractor Lockheed Martin were up 2.7% to a record on Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, the iShares U.S. Aerospace and Defense ETF rose 1% and were just 0.7% below their all-time high of $118.14 reached March 6. Brown said Tuesday on CNBC's " Halftime Report " that the war in Ukraine has led to surging demand for helicopters and missiles. He added that a "rejiggering" of the geopolitical landscape in other regions, such as East Asia, has also led to defense stocks having a breakout moment. "Outside of Boeing, everything else in this thing makes helicopters and missiles," Brown said, speaking about the ITA. "We've used up, like, a 10-year supply of things that fly and explode in the last year to 18 months in the conflict in Europe. … It's unfortunate. Nobody's cheering — it's just a reality of humanity that we go through these phases." The wealth manager said that changing perspectives on national defense elsewhere in the world are essentially creating a "guaranteed source of demand" for companies in the defense sector. "You're going to see countries like Japan [and] Germany, that haven't really had to arm themselves, defend themselves for 70 to 80 years, now coming to the table with an order book. It's a completely new world. And I think that that's being reflected in these breakouts," Brown said. "Every one of these stocks is breaking out, or is on the verge of breaking out. I wish it weren't so, but we don't get to invest based on how we want it to be." ITA LMT 1Y mountain iTA ETF and Lockheed Martin shares are up Correction: Josh Brown is CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management. An earlier version misspelled the name of the firm.
