It is Thursday the 10^th of July 2025. BHP and Rio Tinto are set to be hit by huge new copper tariffs, imposed by the Trump White House, while local pharmaceutical companies, such as CSL, are set to be smacked with 200 per cent imposts. But the news isn’t all bad, with Aussie companies operating facilities in the US potentially benefiting from the tariffs.

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News in brief

Qantas says it is yet to see any of the personal data hacked from the airline in the public domain and has warned frequent flyer customers to not provide information to anyone calling them, purporting to be from Qantas.

Almost half of all pay-outs by life insurers are linked to mental health, and industry leaders expect the growing crisis to worsen as more young people claim they are unable to work due to severe anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The business banking sector, traditionally dominated by National Australia Bank, is getting crowded with Commonwealth Bank and Westpac pushing hard into the sector, along with Macquarie Bank, AMP Bank and now accounting software provider MYOB. Customers should be the winners from the increased competition.

US President Donald Trump was at his vocal best, or worst, yesterday, blasting the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others. He called Powell “terrible” and accused him “whining like a baby about non-existent inflation for months and refusing to do the right thing”.

The embroidered work of medieval art known as the Bayeux Tapestry, a masterpiece that depicts the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, will return to Britain for the first time in centuries, according to the British Museum, where it will be displayed in London starting next year.

Fear-o-meter

Donald Trump’s tariff policy is ill-considered and inconsistent. Probably the best descriptor is “crazy”. The latest impost on copper will make manufacturing in the US more expensive. China is the biggest copper producer and the US imports more than half its needs, so it’s hard find any economic sense in what Trump has done.

However, it isn’t all bad news for Australian copper companies who will be hit with the tax.

BHP and Rio Tinto own possibly the largest copper mine in the US: Resolution Copper, which could supply about one-quarter of the US’s needs. It could benefit massively from the tariffs.

The problem so far is that BHP and Rio haven’t been able to make it work mostly due to native title and environmental disputes. Donald Trump has moved the dial, slightly, for the two companies so far, and if he is genuine in wanting to increase US produced copper, he may do even more for the two Australian companies.

Who's talking today?

"There is a real desire to see growth and to do the right deals for the right value. I think Australia is a huge beneficiary of a lot of flow of capital coming in from cross border transactions."

Greed-o-meter

The announcement that France will lend the British Museum the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the 1066 Norman Conquest of England and is one of the only records of the battle, has prompted today’s list - the world’s most expensive art works ever sold.

Source:artnews.com

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