Defence Stocks Rose After Trump's Decision to Increase the Defence Budget to $1 Trillion

As shown in the charts, despite predominantly bearish sentiment in the stock market yesterday — with the difference between the opening and closing price for the S&P 500 index (US SPX 500 mini on FXOpen) being down by 4% — defence company stocks showed growth.

According to the WSJ, Palantir Technologies shares rose by 8% to $84.05 on Tuesday, while General Dynamics and Boeing increased by 5% to $260.12 and $145.365 respectively. Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin gained about 4% each.

Why Did Lockheed Martin (LMT) Shares Rise?

This occurred after President Trump announced that the defence budget for the 2026 fiscal year would be around $1 trillion, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegset published his announcement about the budget on X (formerly Twitter).

The increase in the defence budget by approximately $50-100 billion contrasts with previous statements from US leadership in February, when:

→ Trump said that "we have no reason to spend almost a trillion dollars on the military";

→ Hegset suggested annually cutting the defence budget by 8% — or around $50 billion — over the next five years.

Such statements had been putting pressure on the price of LMT stock in 2025.

Technical Analysis of the Lockheed Martin (LMT) Chart Today

As a reminder, on 3 October we suggested that breaking the psychological $600 level would trigger profit-taking, which would, in turn, drive a correction following the impressive rally. In the same analysis, we outlined a long-term channel (shown in grey). Since then, the price has dropped by more than 25%. Today, the LMT share price is near the lower boundary of this channel.

It is worth noting that the recent lows around the $425 level resemble a bullish Triple Bottom pattern.

Given this, it is reasonable to assume that bulls may attempt to recover at least part of the decline that started in October 2024. It’s also possible that concerns over rising geopolitical tensions amid the global trade war could support this move.

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