A question of security.

(From Israel Business Arena)

Byline: Shlomi Cohen

Just when everyone thought that the Democratic Party convention in Boston had passed safely, without casualties, and the stock markets would sigh in relief and move upward, along came Sunday's dramatic press conference, in which US Secretary for Homeland Security Tom Ridge turned everything upside down by raising the terrorist threat level to Code Orange for the financial services sector in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Washington, DC. It's hard to see how the stock market can recover soon, when fear of terrorism has been raised to new levels. What's involved now is not just a general alert; warnings have been made of terrorist attacks against specific locations at several financial sites, particularly the New York Stock Exchange itself on Wall Street in Manhattan.

It's obvious that shares of security companies, such as Israeli companies Verint Systems (Nasdaq: VRNT) and Magal Security Systems (Nasdaq: MAGS; TASE: MAGS) will enjoy a resurgence, if only for a few days or hours. Software security companies like Check Point (Nasdaq: CHKP) may also benefit this time, because Ridge also expressed concern over attacks against the computer networks of financial institutions. In addition to security, oil prices hitting a record of almost $44 a …