And former UK prime minster Rishi Sunak has joined Goldman Sachs.
Happy Wednesday and welcome to your morning wrap of the key business and political headlines.
We begin in the United States, where President Donald Trump said he would impose a 50% tariff on copper imports, CNBC reported. The announcement at a cabinet meeting caused copper prices to jump to a record high.
The US imports nearly half of the copper it uses. Trump ordered a probe in February into potential tariffs on copper on national security grounds.
Meanwhile, Trump also threatened to impose a 200% tariff on pharmaceutical imports. He said the levy on pharmaceuticals would be introduced “very soon” but would not go into effect immediately. “We’ll give them a certain period of time to get their act together,” Trump said, apparently referring to drugmakers.
Pharmaceutical stocks appeared to shrug off the statement, as their prices remained relatively unchanged. The comments come as Trump wants to incentivise drug companies to move manufacturing to the US.
Staying in the United States, Trump has lashed out at his Russian counterpart and has resumed sending weapons to Ukraine, ABC reported. During the same cabinet meeting, the President said he was “very unhappy” that Vladimir Putin had made no progress on peace talks with Ukraine since the pair had a phone call last week.
“We get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth," Trump told reporters. "He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."
Trump hinted that he was considering further sanctions on Russia and confirmed the US would resume weapons shipments to Ukraine.
Donald Trump.
To the Middle East, where five Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Gaza, and Israeli strikes killed 51 Palestinians, the Associated Press reported.
The soldiers were killed by an explosive device detonated in Beit Hanoun, according to an Israeli security official. Militants also opened fire on the soldiers, injuring 14 in the attack.
Hamas officials at Nasser Hospital said 41 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday, and another 10 were killed in central Gaza.
The rising death toll comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the US for talks about a ceasefire plan. A new round of indirect peace talks between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday.
A Hamas supporter.
In market news, it was a mixed day on Wall Street, as anxiety over Trump’s tariff comments overshadowed earlier hopes for clarity on US trade policy, Reuters reported.
The S&P 500 was flat, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.26%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.21%.
Wall Street equities sold off on Monday after Trump warned of new tariffs on goods from key trading partners but steadied overnight. There was no rebound, however, as investors remained concerned about the President’s new sector-specific tariff threats.
"There's still a lot of uncertainty about how the tariff story is going to play out. There are too many moving parts here," Paleo Leon managing director John Praveen said.
Finally this morning, former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined investment bank Goldman Sachs as an adviser. The BBC reported that he would work part-time, advising the bank’s clients on global politics and the economy.
Sunak resigned as Prime Minister in July 2024 but remains the Conservative MP for Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire. He previously worked for the bank in the early 2000s.
A condition of his employment prevents him from advising other governments or their sovereign wealth funds for the bank, or advising clients with whom he had direct dealings while Prime Minister.
His salary will be donated to The Richmond Project, a charity he founded alongside his wife to improve numeracy across the UK.
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