By Mucahithan Avcioglu
ISTANBUL (AA) - The New York Stock Exchange ended Tuesday mixed as US President Donald Trump threatened to impose new tariffs of 200% on pharma imports and 50% on copper imports, as well as a 10% tariff on countries that are affiliated with the BRICS economic bloc.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.37%, or 165.6 points, to close at 44,240.76, and the S&P 500 slightly dropped 0.07%, or 4.46 points, to 6,225.52.
On the other hand, the Nasdaq composite was mildly up 0.03%, or 5.95 points, to end at 20,418.46.
The mixed course followed Trump's threat to impose up to 200% tariffs on pharmaceutical imports “very soon.”
“They’re going to be tariffs at a very high rate, like 200%,” he said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, but indicated that those levies would not be implemented immediately, stating he would "give people about a year, year-and-a-half" before fixing the tariffs.
He also said he would impose a 50% tariff on copper imports, not specifying the date of the tariff.
“Today, we’re doing copper,” Trump said. “I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make it 50%.”
He also warned that countries affiliated with the BRICS economic bloc will face a 10% tariff, accusing the group of working against the US.
"They have to pay 10% if they're in BRICS because BRICS was set up to hurt us," the US president said.
On trade relations with Europe, Trump said the EU has changed its tone. "They treated us very badly until recently. Now they're treating us very nicely. It's like a different world."
"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 (tariff) deal," he said.
About potential trade deals, he stated that countries have to make deals if they want to do business with the US.
On whether there will be more trade agreements, Trump said: “Yeah, we have a lot of them going out, but the deals are mostly my deal to them.”
On the macroeconomic data side, consumers' short-term inflation expectations in the US fell 0.2 percentage points to 3% in June, according to the results of a consumer survey published Tuesday by the Federal Reserve's New York Branch.
The median inflation expectation covering the next three years remained at 3%, and the median inflation expectation covering the next five years remained at 2.6%.