The surprise news last week that President Trump signed an immediate 50% tariff on only some copper imports into the U.S. caused the most-active September COMEX copper futures (HGU25) price to plunge to a weekly low of $4.3325 — down around 25% from the record peak scored just a week earlier. The U.S. copper tariffs were only on semi-finished products such as wires and pipes, and spared key inputs like ore, cathodes, and concentrates, which are the most commonly imported forms of copper.
The marketplace did not expect that, at all.
