Lockheed Martin Leads Defense Stock Rally as Trump Calls For Military Spending Surge

Core Insights - Defense contractors' shares surged following President Trump's proposal to significantly increase the military budget to $1.5 trillion for 2027, up from $1 trillion [1][6] Group 1: Stock Performance - Shares of Lockheed Martin (LMT), Huntington Ingalls (HII), and L3 Harris (LHX) rose over 7%, leading gains in the S&P 500 index [2] - General Dynamics (GD) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) saw increases of more than 4%, while RTX Corp. (RTX) gained 2% [2] Group 2: Budget Details - The Department of Defense had a budget of $850 billion in fiscal 2025, which was an increase of $34 billion from the previous year [3] - The White House proposed an increase of over $113 billion for the fiscal 2026 defense budget [3] - Trump's proposed budget represents a roughly 50% increase from the current budget levels [3] Group 3: Market Reactions - The gains in defense stocks on Thursday reversed losses from the previous day, when Trump criticized companies for spending on stock buybacks and dividends instead of enhancing manufacturing processes [4]