The mid-term elections likely going against President Trump and the GOP is the biggest reason Richard Safran sees behind the U.S. defense stock slump seen in Northrop Grumman (NOC) and RTX Corp. (RTX) among others. In Europe, he believes the continent has underinvested in defense and attributes the rally in companies like Rheinmetall (RNMBY) as a catch-up trade — until those shares also slid in recent months. Tom White offers an example options trade for Northrop Grumman.