NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks were slightly negative early Friday, with Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors retreating after President-elect Donald Trump renewed criticism of a costly weapons program.
Lockheed lost 1.7 percent as Trump on Twitter called for rival Boeing to offer an estimate for the F-18 jet fighter, a potential alternative to Lockheed's F-35 stealth fighter.
"Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!" Trump tweeted.
Boeing shares slipped 0.3 percent. Northrop Grumman and Raytheon lost 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
About 15 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 19,912.47, down less than 0.1 percent.
The broad-based S&p 500 was down a hair at 2,260.90, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was essentially flat at 5,447.00.
Investors were girding for a sleepy session, with many traders on vacation ahead of this weekend's Christmas holiday.
Friday opened the final five-day sprint of the trading year, a period that has historically produced an average 1.4 percent gain since 1969, winning it the nick-name the "Santa Claus rally," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
"With the move the stock market has made since the election, however, we suspect a lot of participants are willing to concede that Santa already came this year and won't be overly bothered by a Wall Street flyover at the end of this particular year," O'Hare said.
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