
President Donald Trump’s policies are sending tremors through Wall Street, but they’re having the opposite effect an ocean away.
While the White House is racing to defend its economic agenda at home, Trump has made progress on a top foreign policy goal — getting Europe to boost its military spending. Key foreign leaders have reaffirmed support for Ukraine after Trump’s public harangue of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month and taken steps to expand their defense outlays.
That’s pushing the shares of international military firms higher, giving a jolt to stock markets in some of the very countries where Trump has taken his trade war.
European stocks are seeing their strongest start to any year since 1998, and international stocks overall are outperforming their American counterparts by more than any year since 1990, according to data JPMorgan Asset Management Chief Market Strategist Gabriela Santos shared with NBC News.