US STOCKS-Defense names see little impact from Obama speech

By Ryan Vlastelica

NEW YORK, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Defense companies were slightly lower on Thursday, with the group seeing little impact from U.S. President Obama authorizing air strikes in both Syria and Iraq, though the groups have been strong outperformers so far this year.

Obama late Wednesday announced his decision to launch attacks, which are part of a broad campaign against the Islamic State militant group.

While investors are closely watching the situation, the primary impact seems to be on the commodity market, not the contractors who may see new government contracts as a result.

"I don't know how much impact this can have on the sector since we're still in the early stages of what might happen, but certainly this is not bad news," said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of Exencial Wealth Advisors in Oklahoma City.

Courtney added that the group was inexpensive based on a price-to-book metric, suggesting its strength throughout 2014 could continue.

General Dynamics, down 0.5 percent to $126.77 on Thursday, is up almost 33 percent on the year, far outpacing the S&P 500's 7.8 percent rise. Lockheed Martin, up 17 percent this year, was down 0.2 percent to $174.32 on the day, while Northrop Grumman was off 0.2 percent at $129.75 on Thursday, but up 13 percent this year.

Index snapshot at 11:57 EDT:

* S&P 500 was falling 2.59 points, or 0.13 percent.

* Nasdaq Comp was losing 11.22 points, or 0.24 percent.

* Dow industrials was dropping 33.41 points, or 0.2 percent.

* Russell 2000 was adding 1.09 points, or 0.09 percent.

* S&P MidCap was adding 2.53 points, or 0.18 percent.

* S&P SmallCap was gaining 1.16 points, or 0.17 percent. (Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)