WSJ What’s News - Copper Prices Hit Record High as Trump Unveils 50% Tariffs

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

P.M. Edition for July 8. During a cabinet meeting today, President Trump announced a 50% tariff on copper and threatened the European Union with steep tariffs if it doesn't reach a trade deal with the U.S. WSJ reporter Kim Mackrael says the EU’s member states are split as to how to handle Trump’s demands. Plus, the Supreme Court has lifted a halt on President Trump’s plan to shrink the federal workforce, clearing the way for potential mass layoffs of federal workers. And New York City real-estate executives are fighting to block Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani from winning the general election in November. Reporter Rebecca Picciotto explains why they’re switching their support (and money) from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to incumbent Eric Adams. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Sobeys, a 100% fresh guarantee couldn't be easier. We guarantee freshness store-wide in our produce, bakery, meat departments, and beyond, or your money back. Yes, it's that easy. Visit Sobeys.com to learn more. Restrictions apply. See In-store Online for details. Copper prices hit an all-time high as President Trump threatens 50% tariffs on imports of

the metal. Plus, why EU member states can't agree on how to approach tariff negotiations with the U.S. The reality that everybody in Europe has come to accept is no matter what is agreed to, it's going to be worse than the situation was before President Trump started imposing tariffs on Europe and the rest of the world. And why New York City real estate developers are backing Mayor Eric Adams to be re-elected. It's Tuesday, July 8th. I'm Alex Osceola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move

the world today. We start this evening with a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which late this afternoon lifted a halt on President Trump's plan to shrink the federal workforce—a decision that clears the way for potential mass layoffs of federal workers. In February, Trump issued an executive order aimed at drastically reducing the government's workforce, but in May, a federal judge in San Francisco blocked it from taking effect. In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court said today it had based its decision on the legality of Trump's executive order itself and didn't rule on whether

the reorganization plans broke the law. President Trump has said that there will be no extensions to his August 1st deadline to impose so-called reciprocal tariff rates on many U.S. trading partners. In a post on social media a day after sending letters to various countries warning them of the levies, Trump said that more letters with specifics about tariff rates for individual trading partners will be sent in the coming days. Later, during a cabinet meeting, he said that members of the BRICS block of nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—will pay an additional 10 percent tariff charge. He added that the levies would be imposed pretty soon.

At the same meeting, the president said that the U.S. would impose 50 percent tariffs on copper, sending the price of the metal soaring 13% to a record high. During the cabinet meeting, Trump also discussed tariffs of up to 200% on pharmaceuticals. And he said that he might send a letter to the European Union within the next two days, threatening to impose stiff tariffs on the block if it doesn't reach a trade deal with the U.S. They're very tough, but now they're being very nice to us and we'll see what happens. We're probably two days off from sending them a letter. We are talking to them.

I just want you to know, a letter means a deal. Even as European officials close in on a trade deal with the U.S., member countries are still not aligned on how to handle Trump's demands. WSJ reporter Kim McCrail joins me now with more. Kim, where do EU countries stand on making a deal with the US? Ultimately, everybody says they want a deal. And to be really clear about it, the member states have been actually to this point, remarkably united. But we are seeing some signs of differences in view on what member states are willing to accept and how much they might be willing to let go of in service of a quick deal. So we know Germany is a highly export dependent economy. Its car industry is extremely important and it's really focused and interested in trying to get some exemptions from the 25 percent tariffs that currently exist. Chancellor Mertz from Germany has been focused on

trying to get a quick deal on trying to move things forward to get some relief for the car industry and for some other specific industries that are important for Germany. On the other side, France is probably the country that is the most vocal about its concerns about accepting a deal that is maybe in their view too heavily tilted in the US's favour. And a lot of the reason for that difference is, first of all, the different economies. France is far less dependent on exports to the US. the US. And France is also thinking from a political perspective. If you allow yourself to go for a deal that really favors the US, what does that mean for the strength you can project globally? What does it mean for other trade deals you might be looking to sign with

other countries? So there's some concern there about the precedent that might set. No matter what the EU and US agree to, how will this compare to the trade relationship before President Trump imposed these most recent tariffs? The reality that everybody in Europe has come to accept is no matter what is agreed to, it's going to be worse than the situation was before President Trump started imposing tariffs on Europe and the rest of the world. And Europeans would also argue from their perspective, it leaves the US worse off as well. But that will leave that trading relationship in worse shape from their point of view than

it was before. That was Wall Street Journal reporter Kim McCreel. Thanks so much, Kim. Thank you. Major US indexes were mixed today after President Trump declared that he would hold firm on his latest deadline for trade deals. The Dow fell about 0.4 percent. The S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1 percent, while the Nasdaq eeked out a gain of less than 0.1 percent. The National Federation of Independent Business said today that its Optimism Index, a gauge of sentiment among small firms, edged down to 98.6 in June. That's slightly above its long-term reading of 98, but a little lower than economists

expected. Excess inventories and continued uncertainty were main factors behind the drop. Coming up, why New York City's real estate executives have turned their backs on former Governor Andrew Cuomo and support Mayor Adams for re-election. That's after the break. It won't take long to tell you Neutral's ingredients. Vodka, soda, natural flavours. So what should we talk about? No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple.

For the months leading up to the Democratic primary election in June, real estate executives spent millions of dollars backing former Governor Andrew Cuomo to be the next mayor of New York City. But then Zoran Mamdani won that primary in an upset. Now developers are backing a new horse, Eric Adams, the city's current mayor. Rebecca Pichotto covers real estate for the Journal. Rebecca, why are developers shifting their support to Adams now?

As you noted, in the wake of the Democratic primary where Cuomo conceded to Zoran Mamdani, the New York real estate community was in panic mode. They started organizing around what the path forward would look like to defeat Mamdani. The top line issue they are opposed to is his housing proposal to institute a rent freeze on rent stabilized units in New York. Cuomo's campaign was unimpressive to some real estate executives who I've spoken with so far. They felt like the momentum he was able to gain during the primary was not strong enough.

They also are somewhat satisfied with how Adams has approached his housing agenda platform, but the idea is that Adams might just be a stronger candidate or at least that's what they are banking on. What does their support look like in practice? If they were in panic mode in the first couple days after the primary, they are now in realignment mode.

So they started off by putting together these initial meetings and calls to figure out what the path forward might look like. Now it sounds like that path forward is going to be backing Mayor Adam. So there was a fundraisers in the Hamptons over the July 4th holiday weekend. There are a few fundraisers coming up this week put together by real estate executives, sometimes co-hosting with other Wall Street or tech executives. There are some real estate executives who are certainly figuring out where they're going to sign their next check and where that's going to go.

So not everyone is fully settled, but the cards are definitely aligning around backing Adams and pivoting away from Cuomo. What is the picture that's shaping up for the general election in November? It's still early, and there was certainly a lot of real estate money behind Cuomo in the primary and we saw how that worked out. But the general November election electorate is very different. Mom Donnie certainly is still the favorite as the Democratic nominee in a heavily Democratic city.

That said, Mom Donnie is going to have to do a lot of work in the next few months to win over some of the biggest power players in the city. That was WSJ Reporter Rebecca Picciotto. Thanks, Rebecca. Thanks so much for having me. Yesterday, President Trump issued an executive order calling for tight application of the eligibility rules for clean energy tax credits. It comes less than a week after his big, beautiful tax and spending bill became law. That law, in the end, requires wind and solar farms to be in service by 2027 to get tax credits and allows them to claim credits if construction starts in the next 12 months. What does all that mean for renewable

energy companies? Well, Ed Ballard, who writes the journal's climate and energy newsletter, says a lot will depend on what will be considered as being under construction. It's important to start by taking a step back and thinking about what happened last week with the passage of Trump's big tax and spending bill. That didn't crack down as hard on renewable energy as some fiscal hawks in the Republican Party would have liked. So this executive order looks like a quid pro quo from President Trump to the Republican fiscal hawks who supported his sprawling tax and spending bill. Now what Trump wants is a way of defining under construction that doesn't go too easy on renewable energy. And a lot now is going to depend on how the Treasury

Department responds to that request and what it comes up with. In other news, Goldman Sachs has hired former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a senior adviser. The one-time world leader who worked at Goldman as an analyst in the early 2000s Goldman Sachs has hired former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a senior advisor. The one-time world leader, who worked at Goldman as an analyst in the early 2000s, could help the investment bank attract companies and governments as clients. Sunak became prime minister in the fall of 2022 and held the office until last year, when his government lost a general election. He remains a lawmaker representing a constituency in northern England. In the

UK, lawmakers are allowed to have second jobs as long as they don't serve as government ministers. And Kirk Tanner, who brought spicy Takis toppings and SpongeBob SquarePants to Wendy's as its chief executive, is departing the burger chain to take on the top role at Hershey, effective August 18. Tanner will succeed Michelle Buck as president and CEO of the Chocolate Company. Ken Cook, Wendy's chief financial officer, has been appointed as interim CEO, and its board has launched a search for a permanent successor. And that's what's new for this Tuesday afternoon. Additional sound in this episode,

courtesy of Reuters. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bienneme with supervising producer Michael Kosmides. I'm Alex Osela for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. ["The Wall Street Journal"]