Rheinmetall Shares Plunge Nearly 20% After Last-Minute Contract Loss

Shares in Rheinmetall, the German defense and industrial giant, suffered their steepest single-day decline on record, falling nearly 20 percent on the stock exchange after the company lost a major contract at the last moment. The dramatic drop wiped billions from the company's market value, marking an unprecedented fall for a firm that had previously been riding high on surging European defense spending. Rheinmetall had been one of the biggest beneficiaries of increased NATO-linked defense investment across Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with its stock price climbing sharply over recent years as governments rushed to boost military procurement. The sudden loss of the contract reversed much of that investor confidence in a single trading session, underscoring how dependent the company's valuation had become on securing large-scale defense deals.