The $750 million order will boost the Integrated Defense Systems segmental order backlog. Integrated Defense Systems order backlog decreased from $70 billion at the end of the first half of fiscal 2009 to $65.8 billion at the end of the recent quarter. The reduction in backlog was primarily due to the termination of the manned ground vehicle section of the Future Combat Systems contract.

Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jet liners and military aerospace products (based on total sales). Boeing designs and produces commercial airplanes, defense systems, and civil and defense space systems. It is also the largest NASA contractor. Non-airplane products include helicopters, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, rocket engines, launch vehicles, and advanced information and communication systems.

Boeing is among the best-positioned companies among its defense peers due to its balanced exposure to commercial aircraft and defense equipment. Defense peers like Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) deal only in defense equipment.
 
Going forward, we believe the $320 billion order backlog, strong order booking, stable cash-flow generation and a globally diversified customer base will help maintain the growth momentum. However, a bearish commercial aerospace market, apprehension over growth in defense spending, and delays in the launch of the 787 series jetliner will affect its performance in the near term.

I’ve been thinking about this recently because I’ve been thinking a lot about ETF liquidity. As much as we’d like to imagine a world of buy-and-hold investors, the reality is that ETFs are traded. Before the ETF, pooled exposure was essentially available only to buy-and-hold investors, through mutual funds. Those mutual funds didn’t go away. So it stands to reason (and the numbers definitely back this up) that ETFs attract a lot of hot money.

The funny thing is, buy-and-hold ETF investors care quite a bit about traders. The No. 1 most-asked question about individual ETFs we get is, “how does it trade?”. That’s because smart investors and advisers know that ETFs are really only a better mousetrap when the ETF is itself relatively liquid. That liquidity is in part what keeps spreads tight, and the price of the ETF being near the net asset value of the underlying securities. (It also is what drives the tax efficiency of ETFs, at least indirectly.)

And all that has me thinking about ETF tickers.

Traders, you see, are one of the most superstitious and routine-bound group of people you’ll ever met. If they did something one time and it worked, they’ll do it again and again and again.

This is why SPY will always be more liquid than IVV, despite IVV having substantial benefits over “The Spiders.” Because when a trader has a hunch, or needs to gain or lose exposure in a hurry, SPY will be the three letters already in his head. And let’s be honest: For a day or two, the difference between the two will be meaningless.

It’s why SLV and GLD will continue to dominate the market for bullion. If I want gold, GLD seems simple. It’s been around, and its ticker is obvious. Ditto SLV, despite the fact that it’s 10 basis points more expensive than its identical competitor, SIVR.

You want agricultural exposure because you think soybeans are going up? Are you going to remember MOO (the Van Eck Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF) or JJG (the iPath Dow Jones AIG-Grains ETN)?

The buy-and-hold investor who takes half an hour to dig around will buy the grain ETN every time. The trader with a hunch? It’s MOO all the way.

Is this silly? Yes. And of course, a cute ticker symbol isn’t going to guarantee anyone assets. I don’t see PBJ (PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage ETF) or FAN (First Trust Global Wind Energy ETF) scooping up mad assets out of all proportion to their competitors.

But I think reality is that traders trust ETF labels. The ETF industry has done a commendable job showing that for the most part, what you see is what you get with an ETF. That’s a good thing. And it means if State Street or iShares or Vanguard came out with a fund called the “Space Exploration ETF” and tickered it “MOON,” traders and investors both would expect it to be investing in NASA suppliers and Virgin Galactic. Many, many people would simply trust the label, and never open the prospectus.

And this, ultimately, is the problem with the iPath ETN+ inverse and leveraged products.

Matt, you may think they’re a better mousetrap. Heck, I actually agree with you. But because neither the tickers nor the fund names tell me anything useful about the actual notes, they’re destined for obscurity.

We maintain our market Neutral recommendation on the shares.

Salesforce.com enters the Government cloud computing segment in a big way with this deal, although many cabinet-level government agencies are already using the company’s services. The positive news comes just after the company’s introduction of Service cloud 2, an enhanced version of service cloud computing that provides better solutions to customers. This includes Salesforce knowledge, Salesforce Answers and Salesforce for Twitter. Salesforce is thus blazing all guns to make its cloud computing services available to customers across all segments.

Historically, Salesforce has achieved success in all cloud computing deals with government organizations. NASA uses Salesforce’s CRM applications in its partnership program with companies, federal agencies and non-profit organizations to get a macro view of its interactions with these agencies, while the US Army uses Salesforce CRM for recruitment to save time and resources. This apart, the US Department of State's Office of Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund avails Force.com services for providing up to date budget information to program managers around the globe.

Government organizations are clearly benefiting from the cloud computing services, saving time by reducing cost of additional hardware and software and without incurring any additional employee cost. Going forward, these benefits should draw the attention of other government customers around the world, generating additional demand for companies like Salsforce.com in the cloud computing segment.

On the other hand, big companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), International Business Machine (IBM) and Google (GOOG) are also entering this segment to get a share of this growing market, offering Salesforce.com tough competition.