What’s going on here?

American copper prices hit a record high on Tuesday after the US president threatened – you guessed it – a fresh 50% tariff on the metal.

What does this mean?

That proposed 50% import tax was twice what investors were bracing for – and the curveball sent US copper prices flying past global ones as buyers scrambled to get their hands on the stuff. So much so, in fact, that the red metal had its biggest one-day price jump in decades. See, the US imports nearly half of all the copper it uses – mostly from Canada and Chile – and that’s got manufacturers feeling exposed. (One big importer even warned that supplies could simply be rerouted to China, leaving American firms in the lurch.) The president’s ultimate goal may be to increase homegrown output – but until that’s up and running, you can expect more price swings, trade tensions, and inflation headaches.

Why should I care?

Zooming in: Making things in America just got even pricier.

The newly created gap between US copper prices and international ones is sizable: New York copper is trading at around 25% more than the global average, as firms rush to stockpile the metal. That disparity is already weighing on some American companies’ stocks – especially in wiring, construction, and electronics. Because while US copper miners (like Freeport-McMoRan) might win big from all this, manufacturers likely won’t. That “Made in the USA” label just got more expensive – and the tariffs haven’t even taken effect yet.

The bigger picture: Pedal to the metals.

Beyond their physical application in all kinds of stuff, commodities like copper play an important, shock-absorbing role in your portfolio. When inflation heats up, stocks and bonds can start to lose their footing – but commodities tend to hold their ground. So right now, with the economic outlook still uncertain, keeping a few commodities in your investment mix could help deliver that balance.

What’s going on here?

China's factory prices fell hard in June, suffering their steepest decline in almost two years and ramping up deflation worries.

What does this mean?

Producer prices in China dropped 3.6% from the same time last year – a red flag from the economy. The pain was pretty sharp for export-heavy stuff, with solar equipment and electronic parts tumbling nearly 11%. But coal had it even worse: mining and related prices slid 22% in their worst fall since 2007. You could blame that on the rise of renewable energy – but with other industries falling too, the greater trend points to a slower global economy and oversupply issues. Chinese firms have been cranking out cheap products and flooding global markets for months, after all, so a slowdown was inevitable at some point.

Why should I care?

Zooming in: Silver, sparkly linings.

It wasn’t all bad news. China’s consumer prices unexpectedly inched into positive territory, ticking up 0.1% in their first foray above zero since January. Only, that was mostly thanks to a surge in shiny stuff. Gold and platinum jewelry prices respectively jumped 39% and 16% from a year ago. If you strip out those shimmering outliers, everything else looks pretty deflationary – and the country as a whole is on fairly shaky ground.

The bigger picture: Rare leverage.

China’s situation would be a lot more dire if it weren’t sitting on a global treasure chest of rare earths: the essential minerals used in everything from fighter jets to EVs and smartphones. That dominance gave the country some serious clout in its recent trade negotiations with the US, ultimately forcing the States to soften its harshest tariffs. Now, America’s racing to dig up its own rare earth supply, but that’s no overnight fix – far from it. So China’s got the upper hand for now, and it’s not afraid to use it.