Global stocks rally on German defense push, US pause on auto tariffs [Video]

Global stocks rallied on Wednesday, buoyed by Germany’s plan to massively boost spending on defense and a move by the White House to pause tariffs on auto imports from Mexico and Canada.

In European trading, Frankfurt surged 3.4 percent after the likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, announced the spending plans in the hope of also reviving Europe’s biggest economy.

European defense and manufacturing stocks also climbed as bourses in Paris and Milan won solid gains.

“This is huge,” Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB trading platform said in reaction to the news out of Germany.

“For years, economists have said that Germany needed to change its spending rules to get out of the economic hole. It’s taken a Conservative chancellor-in-waiting to pull the trigger,” she added.

Back in New York, Wall Street stocks got a positive jolt from President Donald Trump’s latest pivot on tariffs.

US automakers have been among …