Market's Terror Trend Plays Out Predictably

The White House wasn't the only outfit seized last fall by the grand vision of creating an Office of Homeland Security.

On Oct. 17 -- just nine days after President Bush appointed Tom Ridge to lead the new national defense agency -- an unheralded communications company called Titan (TTN Quote) formed a homeland security office of its very own, "to specifically focus on providing solutions to chemical and biological terrorism."

Titan's office has lagged behind the White House version in issuing color-coded alert bulletins and staging photo ops at Mount Rushmore. But for Titan and its food-zapping offspring Surebeam (SURE Quote), creating the office served a laudable purpose nonetheless. It helped put two little-known companies squarely in the midst of a frenzied nationwide rush for stocks that would benefit from the reaction to a now-omnipresent threat. ...