Trump tariffs: FTSE 100 holds steady as pharma and metals brace for levies

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President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

The FTSE 100 opened 22 points up this morning, despite threats of pharma and metals tariffs with stark implications for major stocks on the blue chip index. 

President Trump has said that an announcement is coming “very soon” on pharmaceutical tariffs – with a possible 200 per cent rate landing in “about a year”. 

Major FTSE 100 pharma stocks have stayed roughly steady at market open following the news overnight. 

Astrazeneca (AZ) stocks were down 0.37 per cent, while GSK was down 0.11 per cent.  

In 2024, the US imported $212bn worth of pharmaceuticals. 

So far, pharma products have been spared from tariffs, though Trump has made multiple veiled threats that the exemption will likely not hold. 

Morning Wire reported in April that cap ex spending in the sector has been pivoting increasingly towards the US, in the hopes of swerving crushing rates of possible tariffs. 

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that tariffs have had “ZERO IMPACT on inflation” and that “Import Prices are actually DROPPING”. 

Copper concerns 

Meanwhile, Trump’s latest tariff tirade sent copper prices soaring to all time highs.

A 13.25 per cent jump to near $5.50 per pound marked the biggest daily increase since the 1980s, according to Deutsche Bank.

This came as Trump launched a new levy on the metal.

“Today we’re doing copper,” the President said. “We’re going to make it 50 per cent.”

London-listed miners slumped on the news, with Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American all down over two per cent as markets opened.

This helped hold back overall gains in the blue-chip index, with the FTSE 100 inching up 0.1 per cent in early trading.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said an investigation into copper led by his department had concluded that the fresh tax was “likely to be put in place at the end of July – maybe August 1”. 

Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The UK currently remains at the previous rate of 25 per cent and that could drop to zero under the trans-Atlantic trade deal.

“With copper too there could well be some carve-outs. But that’s not stopped copper prices surging to record highs with spot prices at nearly $400 as buyers scramble to build their stockpiles.”