After satisfying Donald Trump's calls for Europe to ramp up defence spending in NATO, EU leaders were meeting in Brussels Thursday on the next big challenge ahead: how to seal a trade deal with the US leader.

The president headed back to Washington after securing a major policy change he’s pushed for since 2017 as most NATO countries agreed to significantly increase their defense spending.

While the American S&P 500 stock market index has seen big ups and downs since Trump became US president in January, Germany's blue-chip DAX index has risen steadily, and is up more than 15% now. IMF and Germany's Bundesbank sound the alarm.