Hegseth broker tried to invest in defense ETF before Iran attacks, FT says

A Morgan Stanley (MS) broker for U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth tried to make a major investment in big defense names in the weeks leading up to the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, the Financial Times’ Paul Murphy, Harriet Agnew, Joshua Franklin, and James Politi report, citing three people familiar with the matter. The broker reached out to BlackRock (BLK) in February about investing millions of dollars in the asset manager’s Defense Industrials Active ETF shortly before the U.S. launched strikes in Iran, the authors say. The inquiry on behalf of Hegseth was flagged internally at BlackRock, the authors note, citing people familiar with the matter. The aforementioned ETF’s largest holdings include RTX (RTX), Lockheed Martin (LMT), and Northrop Grumman (NOC), all of which count the U.S. government as their biggest customers, as well as Palantir (PLTR), according to FT.