The military response to last year's terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade Center should sustain the upward trend of defense spending and may improve profitability for some U.S. defense companies in the intermediate term, a top credit rating agency said yesterday. "But for now, military contractors' credit quality is supported by more fundamental factors," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Roman Szuper wrote in a report entitled "Improved Prospects for U.S. Defense Stem From Sept. 11." Standard & Poor's...
