Lockheed Martin Draws 88% Calls, Northrop Lines Up Bullish, Boeing Gets Call Money in a Downtrend: Defense Data for Suppliers (GTA Terminal, Nov. 10-11, 2026)

Defense work reaches far beyond the prime contractors. Machine shops, sheet-metal fabricators, cable and harness makers, trucking firms and site contractors on military bases all live on the spending that flows down from companies like Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Boeing (BA). On Wednesday, November 11, Russia-Ukraine headlines put defense stocks back in focus, and GTA Terminal data from Global Traders Academy shows how the options money and dark pools reacted.

The headline

According to the GTA Wire's midday read on Russia-Ukraine headlines and defense stocks, BBC News reported at 10:05 AM ET that talks turned to post-war security but ended without a breakthrough. By that story's 12:07 PM update, the defense stocks fund (ITA) was at $72.98, up 0.9%, Lockheed Martin was at $607.25, up 0.7%, and Northrop Grumman was at $546.10, down 0.5%.

What the data showed

• Lockheed Martin, at the close: LMT closed up 1.15% at $610.05 on Wednesday. Over the session, $15.2M in options premium traded: $13.5M in calls and $1.8M in puts, so 88% of the money was in calls, with a put/call volume ratio of 0.8, per this Lockheed closing-flow report for November 11. The day before, the Wire's Tuesday close showed 96% of LMT's options money in calls.

• Lockheed dark pools: On November 10, 396,011 LMT shares traded off the exchanges, 0.5 times the 20-session normal and 43.5% of the day's volume. On November 4 that figure was 1,244,223 shares.

• Lockheed's chart: an uptrend, above the 50-day and 200-day averages, 12% below the 52-week high, with an RSI of 55.

• Northrop Grumman: Trading at $545.25 during Wednesday's session, NOC sat above its 20-day average ($540.54) and 50-day average ($519.50). Options premium was small, $211K, but 76% of it was in calls ($160K calls, $51K puts), with a put/call volume ratio of 0.24. Dark pools on November 10 were light: 206,065 shares, 0.5 times normal. GTA rated the chart, flow and dark pools as lining up bullish, with the 20-day average as the level to hold. The live numbers are on the Northrop Grumman quote and chart page.

• Boeing: Up 0.5% at $174.31 in the afternoon, BA drew $19.7M in premium: $12.5M in calls and $7.2M in puts, so 63% was in calls. The largest unusual trade was 368 call contracts expiring November 13, about $408K in premium against only 20 contracts of open interest, according to the GTA Wire's Wednesday report on Boeing's call-leaning flow. The chart is weaker: a downtrend, 31% below the 52-week high, RSI 36. Dark pools on November 10 ran 0.6 times normal, at 2,717,383 shares.

What it means for defense suppliers and contractors

The clearest signal is Lockheed: two straight sessions with roughly nine-tenths of the options money in calls, and a stock still in an uptrend. Northrop's flow pointed the same way but on a small dollar amount, so it carries less weight. Boeing is the mixed case: call money and a fresh short-dated bet, but a stock in a downtrend well below its highs.

There is an honest caution in the dark pools. Off-exchange volume in all three names ran at half to six-tenths of normal on November 10, so large investors were not moving big blocks quietly. Options traders leaned bullish; the bigger institutional footprint did not follow, at least not yet.

For a machine shop or fabricator with defense work, a supportive market for the primes generally helps order flow and payment terms, but contract awards drive your backlog, not stock prices. If you are weighing a new CNC machine, press brake or inspection equipment for a defense program, base the decision on signed purchase orders and program timelines. Treat the market read as background on how secure your customers' funding looks to investors. Aerospace-heavy shops serving Boeing should be more careful, since its chart has not recovered.

For more on how institutional money moves through this sector, see the institutional options flow on defense contractors. On our blog, read the earlier RTX, GE Aerospace and General Dynamics data for machine shops and the Lincoln Electric and ITW read for fabricators.

A word of caution

Options premium shows where money went, not whether each trade was a buy or a hedge, and geopolitical headlines can reverse quickly. Dark-pool volume shows size, not direction. This is a signal, not a guarantee, and it is not investment advice.

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