BlackRock Introduces Actively-Managed Defense ETF Focused on Global Security and Resilience
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, BlackRock announced the launch of the iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF (NASDAQ:IDEF), an actively managed thematic ETF offering precise exposure to companies at the center of shifting geopolitical dynamics, national defense strategies, and global security priorities.
Long-term forces such as geopolitical fragmentation, supply chain reorientation, and rising competition over critical technologies are redefining national priorities and the global economy. In response, global investment in defense and security has surged - reaching a record $2.7 trillion in 2024, up 9.4% year-over-year and more than doubling since 2000. 1
'An active investing approach offers a nuanced and nimble approach to navigating geopolitical fragmentation and a shifting global defense landscape,' said Jay Jacobs, U.S. Head of Equity ETFs at BlackRock. 'As governments around the world rewire their economic and security strategies, IDEF provides a dynamic way to target companies at the center of that transformation - from cybersecurity and advanced technologies to aerospace and strategic manufacturing.'
Managed by Simon Wan, Yasmin Meissner and Lucy Parker of the BlackRock Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions Group, IDEF combines top-down macro research with proprietary analytics and alternative data - including defense revenue exposure and government contracting activity - to build a selective portfolio that focuses on global defense opportunities across multiples geographies and industries.
IDEF joins BlackRock's $45 billion active ETF platform and builds on its growing thematic lineup. 2 BlackRock also manages one of the largest defense-themed index ETFs, the iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA), as well as the iShares Cybersecurity and Tech ETF (IHAK), offering investors broader access to key subthemes shaping today's global security environment. 3
About BlackRock
BlackRock's purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate | Twitter: @blackrock | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock
About iShares
iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 1500+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and $4.3 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2025, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock.
Carefully consider the Funds' investment objectives, risk factors, and charges and expenses before investing. This and other information can be found in the Funds' prospectuses or, if available, the summary prospectuses which may be obtained by visiting www.iShares.com or www.blackrock.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.
The Fund is actively managed and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index, may have higher portfolio turnover, and may charge higher fees than index funds due to increased trading and research expenses.
Funds that concentrate investments in specific industries, sectors, markets or asset classes may underperform or be more volatile than other industries, sectors, markets or asset classes and the general securities market.
International investing involves risks, including risks related to foreign currency, limited liquidity, less government regulation and the possibility of substantial volatility due to adverse political, economic or other developments. These risks often are heightened for investments in emerging/ developing markets or in concentrations of single countries.
Convertible securities are subject to the market and issuer risks that apply to the underlying common stock.
The Fund's use of derivatives may reduce the Fund's returns and/or increase volatility and subject the Fund to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the other party in the transaction will not fulfill its contractual obligation. The Fund could suffer losses related to its derivative positions because of a possible lack of liquidity in the secondary market and as a result of unanticipated market movements, which losses are potentially unlimited. There can be no assurance that the Fund's hedging transactions will be effective.
This information should not be relied upon as research, investment advice, or a recommendation regarding any products, strategies, or any security in particular. This material is strictly for illustrative, educational, or informational purposes and is subject to change.
The iShares and BlackRock Funds are distributed by BlackRock Investments, LLC (together with its affiliates, 'BlackRock').
© 2025 BlackRock, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. BLACKROCK and iSHARES are trademarks of BlackRock, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are those of their respective owners.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Are the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite Going to Plunge? This Historically Accurate Forecasting Tool Offers a Crystal-Clear Answer.
When the stock market gyrates, investors often dig for clues as to which direction the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite will head next. A comprehensive valuation-based forecasting tool that's been back-tested 154 years points to eventual trouble for Wall Street's major stock indexes. Thankfully, history disproportionately favors long-term, optimistic investors. 10 stocks we like better than S&P 500 Index › Investors have no shortage of ways to grow their wealth over time. They can buy real estate, put their money to work in fixed-income assets like certificates of deposit or U.S. Treasury bonds, and can purchase commodities like oil, gold, and silver. However, no other asset class has come within a stone's throw of stocks over the last century on an annualized return basis. But just because stocks are the premier asset class to own over multiple decades, it doesn't mean Wall Street's major indexes move up in a straight line. The iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), broad-based S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and growth-propelled Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC), have endured their fair share of corrections, bear markets, and even crashes since their respective inceptions. In just a one-week period in early April, we observed the fifth-largest two-day percentage drop for the S&P 500 dating back to 1950, as well as the largest single-day nominal point gain for the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite since their respective inceptions. When the market gyrates, it's perfectly normal for investors to dig for clues as to which direction stocks will move next. Even though no metric or predictive tool can guarantee what's to come, it's hard to overlook the statistical correlations that some data points and events have offered over the years. One forecasting tool, which occurs infrequently but has a historically flawless track record of correlating with big moves on Wall Street, has a crystal-clear message for investors: Prepare for eventual downside. To preface the following discussion, there's always a data point, correlative event, or X factor threatening to cause the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite to plunge. Despite this, these indexes have motored higher over longer periods. But based on one value-focused forecasting measure, the good times are, eventually, set to end for Wall Street's major stock indexes. When investors think of the word "value," the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio probably comes to mind. This quick-and-easy valuation measure can be arrived at by taking a company's share price and dividing it by its trailing-12-month earnings per share (EPS). The traditional P/E ratio works great for mature businesses, but it's not always a reliable valuation tool for growth stocks or during recessions. The valuation tool that offers a flawless forecasting track record when back-tested more than 150 years is the S&P 500's Shiller P/E Ratio. You'll occasionally see the Shiller P/E referred to as the cyclically adjusted P/E Ratio, or CAPE Ratio. Unlike the traditional P/E ratio, the Shiller P/E is based on average inflation-adjusted EPS over the trailing decade. Encompassing 10 years' worth of earnings history ensures that recessions don't adversely skew the results. As of the closing bell on June 18, the S&P 500's Shiller P/E Ratio stood at a multiple of 36.55. To put this into perspective, it's 112% above the average multiple of 17.25, when back-tested to January 1871. However, this massive deviation from the historical mean isn't the telltale sign of trouble for Wall Street. What's far more concerning is how stocks have behaved following the rare instances where the Shiller P/E surpassed and held a multiple of 30 for a period of at least two months. Surpassing and sustaining 30 has occurred only six times in 154 years: August to September 1929 June 1997 to August 2001 September 2017 to November 2018 December 2019 to February 2020 August 2020 to May 2022 November 2023 to present Excluding the present, all five prior instances were eventually followed by declines ranging from 20% to 89% in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and/or Nasdaq Composite. To be clear, the Shiller P/E isn't a timing tool and can't, in any way, pinpoint when stock market corrections, bear markets, or crashes will begin. But what it does have an exceptional track record of doing is foreshadowing an eventual plunge in Wall Street's three major stock indexes. Based solely on what history tells us, stocks won't be able to hold onto their current valuation premium, and the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite will, at some point in the presumed not-too-distant future, plunge. Considering that the S&P 500 has enjoyed one of its strongest two-month performances in 75 years, the prospect of the index once again plunging probably doesn't sit well with investors. There's simply no getting around the data that lofty valuation premiums aren't well tolerated on Wall Street over long periods. But there is a major silver lining to this forecast. Specifically, history is a pendulum that swings in both directions and has disproportionately favored investors who've taken a long-term, optimistic approach. As noted, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite tend to climb over long periods, but their directional movements over shorter timelines are anything but predictable. Corrections, bear markets, and even crashes are normal, healthy, and inevitable aspects of the investing cycle. No amount of well-wishing or fiscal/monetary policy maneuvering can prevent Wall Street's major stock indexes from occasionally declining by double-digit percentages. However, the one noteworthy characteristic about double-digit percentage declines on Wall Street is they tend to be short-lived. Two years ago, shortly after the benchmark S&P 500 established that it was in a new bull market, the analysts at Bespoke Investment Group published a data set on X (formerly Twitter) that compared the calendar-day length of every bull and bear market for the S&P 500 dating back to the start of the Great Depression in September 1929. On one hand, the typical bear market swoon lasted just 286 calendar days, which isn't even an average of 10 months. Conversely, the average S&P 500 bull market endured for 1,011 calendar days, or approximately 3.5 times as long. Being patient and optimistic has allowed investors to take advantage of this simple numbers game. A separate analysis from Crestmont Research widened the lens even further. Its analysts calculated the rolling 20-year total returns, including dividends paid, of the S&P 500 dating back to the start of the 20th century. For those of you rightly recognizing that the S&P didn't exist prior to 1923, Crestmont tracked the performance of its components in other major indexes from 1900 to 1923 in order to back-test its total return data more than a century. What Crestmont Research discovered was that all 106 rolling 20-year periods it examined (1900-1919, 1901-1920, and so on, to 2005-2024) generated a positive annualized total return. Hypothetically, they would have all made investors money, as long as investors held their position for 20 years. Regardless of what any forecasting tool suggests will happen in the coming weeks, months, or couple of years, more than a century of total return data demonstrates the power of buying stocks and holding them over long periods. Before you buy stock in S&P 500 Index, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and S&P 500 Index wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $659,171!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $891,722!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 995% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Are the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite Going to Plunge? This Historically Accurate Forecasting Tool Offers a Crystal-Clear Answer. was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tesla plans $8 billion U.S. investment this fiscal year
-- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) announced plans to invest approximately $8 billion in United States infrastructure and manufacturing during the current fiscal year, according to a post on X on late Friday. The electric vehicle manufacturer revealed it has already invested around $44 billion in capital expenditures in the US since the company's founding. Tesla noted that in the previous fiscal year alone, it made approximately $10 billion in capital expenditures. "Tesla has been focused on investing in manufacturing and infrastructure in the US since our inception and till the beginning of the year, we had invested ~$44B of capital expenditures. Just in the last fiscal year alone, we did ~$10B of capital expenditure and plan to invest another ~$8B this fiscal year," the company stated in its social media post. Related articles Tesla plans $8 billion U.S. investment this fiscal year Meet the nine private humanoid robot firms shaping the future stocks of the week Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Here is Why Fluence Energy (FLNC) Gained This Week
The share price of Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) surged by 12.75% between June 11 and June 18, 2025, putting it among the Energy Stocks that Gained the Most This Week. An illustration of digital intelligence and energy storage for a modern industrial facility with servers and storage racks in the background. Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) is a global market leader delivering intelligent energy storage and optimization software for renewables and storage. Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) soared this week following the Senate Finance Committee's proposed changes to President Trump's tax and spending bill, which are expected to benefit the energy storage sector by allowing full tax credits to continue until 2032. While the proposed amendments include the full phase-out of tax benefits for the solar and wind sectors by 2028, energy storage remains exempt. Moreover, the Senate version of the bill is also more flexible when it comes to foreign entity restrictions, which is a positive development for Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC)'s collaboration with AESC. While we acknowledge the potential of FLNC as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Best Nuclear Energy Stocks to Buy Right Now and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
