President Trump will wield 50% copper tariffs on August 1 as he promises more to come with countries such as Brazil in the crosshairs. Nvidia scores the first $4 trillion market cap milestone, lifting the Nasdaq to a record.

Carlos Gutierrez, former Commerce Secretary, told CNBC’s Emily Tan on “The China Connection” that the U.S. reliance on copper imports is a “vulnerability, but [the U.S. doesn’t] have the capacity right now to offset imports.

President Trump's threatened 50% copper tariffs have boosted prices for the metal in the U.S. far ahead of anywhere else, lifting the premium to roughly one quarter. Copper futures mainly trad

Trump said on Tuesday that he would impose a 50% tariff on copper. Though the remarks were light on specifics, his comments sent the metal to all-time highs.

As U.S. prices remain elevated despite larger-than-usual inventories, the gap in U.S. Comex futures over those on the LME has fluctuated between $500 and $1,500 since Trump announced a probe into copper in February. Historically, that rate has been near-zero, and was around the $150 level in 2024.

“The U.S. has been sucking in lots of copper that it didn’t really need from around the world,” Albert Mackenzie is a copper analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. President Trump had signaled that the tariffs were coming months ago, prompting many U.S. buyers to stockpile copper ahead of time.

President Trump’s proposed 50% tariff on copper imports would likely prove a boon for companies that mine copper in the U.S. So the question for investors is: Which stock should they buy to take advantage?

U.S. President Donald Trump's 50% tariff on copper has placed a record premium on prices of the metal in the United States that is likely to ease over the coming months as a stockpile created by traders anticipating the levy works through the system.