Does stress directly raise blood pressure and blood sugar?

Acutely yes — the stress response raises both through cortisol and adrenaline, which is a normal short-term physiological effect. Whether chronic stress independently causes sustained hypertension or diabetes is less clear-cut, because it is entangled with the behaviours stress produces: poor sleep, less activity, more calorie-dense food, more alcohol, and less consistent medication use. Those pathways are probably where most of the effect lies. Practically that is encouraging, because it means the modifiable targets are sleep, movement and eating patterns rather than an unmeasurable quantity of stress you are supposed to eliminate.