Copper falls on Trump’s impending 50% tariffs
Copper wires at a recycling facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, US, on Thursday, May 8, 2025.
Niki Chan Wylie | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Copper prices slipped on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on exports of the metal to the U.S.
The three-month benchmark copper futures on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.35% at $9,829.50 a ton as of 8.45 a.m. Singapore time.
Analysts at Citi Investment Research consider this a “turning point for the copper market, which can catalyze imminent downside in ex-US pricing and spread tightness.”
“The clarity around tariff implementation timing is key for ex-U.S. pricing as it ends the temporary and substantial draw on ex-U.S. physical units to the U.S. observed in recent months,” they wrote in a Wednesday note.
The analysts foresee a pullback in copper futures traded outside the U.S., with prices expected to drop to around $8,800 per ton within the next three months.
— Amala Balakrishner
Asia-Pacific markets start the day mixed
Asia-Pacific markets started the day mixed Wednesday.
As of 8.11 a.m. Singapore time, Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark added 0.33% while the broader Topix index ticked up 0.17%.
In South Korea, the Kospi index was flat while the small-cap Kosdaq moved up 0.29%.
Over in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 benchmark fell 0.26%.
— Amala Balakrishner
Here are the opening calls for the day
Good morning from Singapore.
Investors will also be keeping a close watch on a slew of data points from China today, including the producer price index for June. Economists polled by Reuters expect the figure to contract by 3.2% year on year, compared with the 3.3% decline in the month before. Meanwhile, the country’s consumer price inflation reading is forecast to come in flat year on year, from a 0.1% decline in May.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open higher, with the futures contract in Chicago at 40,055 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 39820, against the index’s Tuesday close of 39,688.81.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 24,102 pointing to a stronger open compared to the HSI’s last close of 24,148,07.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was also set to start the day lower with futures tied to the benchmark at 8,571, compared to its last close of 8,590.70.
U.S. stock futures were little changed in early Asian hours as investors monitor the latest Trump’s tariff updates.
Overnight stateside two of the three key benchmarks on Wall Street ended near the flatline.
The broad-based S&P 500 benchmark inched down 0.07%, ending at 6,225.52, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.03% and closed at 20,418.46. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 165.60 points, or 0.37%, settling at 44,240.76.
— Amala Balakrishner
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Sarah Min contributed to this report.