Three weeks ago, European defence was crushing US primes. The trade has flipped - but the fundamentals haven't. A 10-stock comparison, the three biggest shifts, and the lens that separates signal from noise.
Three weeks ago, European defence was crushing US primes. The trade has flipped — but the fundamentals haven’t. Inside: a 10-stock comparison, the three biggest shifts, and the lens that separates signal from noise.
10 global defence stocksBaseline 23 Apr → 16 May 2026Yahoo Finance · IR releases · Morningstar
What changed in three weeks
+29% YTD
LMT leading US primes. Q1 op income +4%; rally is consensus framing on the $1.5T FY27 budget pitch.
−14% in 3 weeks
Saab off ~33% from 52w high. Q1 EBIT still +32%, backlog still SEK 274bn (+45% YoY). Narrative, not numbers.
+40–45%
Rheinmetall 2026 sales guide intact. Stock has roundtripped from €2,008 high to €1,143. Same business, very different multiple.
Beginner Explainer · What’s a sector analysis?
A side-by-side look at the major listed companies in one industry — price, valuation, growth, backlog. The point isn’t to pick a winner: it’s to see, at a glance, where market sentiment has moved and where the underlying business hasn’t. When prices move faster than fundamentals, you’re usually looking at a narrative shift rather than a real change in earnings power. Backlog and management guidance are the durable signals; daily ticker moves are noise.
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