Trump Trade: Trump says ‘tremendous progress’ on ending Ukrainian war

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: President Donald Trump stated in a post to Truth Social, “Over the past week, my team has made tremendous progress with respect to ending the War between Russia and Ukraine (A War that would have NEVER started if I were President!). Last month 25,000 soldiers died. The original 28-Point Peace Plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and there are only a few remaining points of disagreement. In the hopes of finalizing this Peace Plan, I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians. I will be briefed on all progress made, along with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages. Thank you for your attention to this very important matter, and let’s all hope that PEACE can be accomplished AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!” Publicly traded defense contractors include BAE Systems (BAESY), Boeing (BA), GE Aerospace (GE), General Dynamics (GD), HII (HII), L3Harris Technologies (LHX), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC) and RTX (RTX).

FED CHAIR: Kevin Hassett has emerged as the front runner to succeed Chair Powell at the Fed, according to Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter. Hassett is very familiar to the markets and is currently Director of the White House National Economic Council. The markets view him as credible but dovish, as a close ally of President Trump. Powell’s term as chairman expires in May, though his term as governor runs until January 2028. Note that the new voters in 2026 include Hammack and Logan, two of the most hawkish, along with Kashkari and Paulson.

MEDICARE PRICE CUTS: JPMorgan views the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ announced negotiated maximum fair prices in Medicare for the 15 drugs selected for 2027 Inflation Reduction Act price negotiations as implying 35%-40% net price cuts for the products included. This is roughly in line with JPMorgan’s assumption for modestly greater cuts versus the previous cycle of 20%-25%, and in-line with Q3 commentary from Novo Nordisk (NVO), Teva (TEVA) and AbbVie (ABBV), the firm tells investors in a research note. JPMorgan says the focus of this round of negotiations is centered on Novo’s semaglutide and Teva’s Austedo. As it relates to Eli Lilly (LLY), the firm does not see any read-through from the semaglutide maximum fair price at this point given that Lilly’s recent deal with the Trump administration provides for known Zepbound and Mounjaro prices in Medicare.