Tariff risk hangs over East Europe's Trump-driven rally

Lauded as "tough" and "smart" by President Donald Trump, Hungary's Viktor Orban is among the eastern European leaders hoping that allegiance to the US will translate into deals and economic gains.

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Instead, they may find their financial markets cannot escape the wider fallout of a US-Europe trade war.

The region is a testing ground of sorts for the view that Trump's good graces can buffer a country's stock and currency markets in the face of turbulence elsewhere. Such hopes lifted Hungarian stocks to record highs immediately after Trump's election win, while shares in Budapestlisted telecommunications firm 4iG Nyrt. soared after its chief executive accompanied the premier on his visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago mansion.

For now, the Trump effect still holds. Stocks across Eastern Europe are benefiting from the US president's pledge to bring an end to Russia's war in Ukraine, and those betting precon upside for Hungary got an added boost Friday, as Orban touted a "sizable" US investment deal ahead.

Yet, with the European Union in the White House crosshairs for trade levies, market gains look precarious.