Boeing, Lockheed, others may not fare well with Obama or McCain

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warned its clients last month that Barack Obama would be "a negative for defense stocks" if he became president, because he will cut weapons programs that generate the companies' biggest profits.

Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and other military contractors may not fare any better under John McCain.

While the two presidential candidates are hammering each other over their differences on Iraq, they share a skepticism over big Pentagon programs such as Lockheed Martin's F-22 fighter and the Army's $159 billion Future Combat Systems, a modernization plan jointly managed by Boeing and SAIC Inc.

"When you get beyond the issue of the war in Iraq, Senator McCain and Senator Obama sound remarkably similar on many defense issues," says Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Virginia. ...