The FTSE 100 climbed to a fresh record high yesterday as investors shrugged off concerns about Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats.
Mining giants led the way as copper prices soared, despite the US President’s vow to slap a 50 per cent levy on the metal from next month.
City experts said that investors believed Trump would U-turn, as copper is crucial to key sectors such as data centres and defence.
London’s blue-chip index hit an all-time high of 8,975.66, up 1.2 per cent, passing its previous peak of 8,884.92 on June 12.
The biggest risers were miners Glencore, Anglo American and Rio Tinto, which gained 3.9 per cent,, 3.8 per cent and 4 per cent respectively.
The FTSE 100 is now up nearly 10 per cent this year despite big names leaving for the US.
Tariff gamble: Mining giants led the charge as copper prices soared despite US president Donald Trump’s vow to slap the metal with a 50% levy from next month
Wall Street stocks were also positive in early trading, with the benchmark S&P 500 up 0.4 per cent and the Dow Jones climbing 0.6 per cent.
Bitcoin has hit a record high of $112,000 (£82,500) after the New York-listed chipmaker Nvidia became the world’s first ever $4trillion (£2.9trillion) company this week.
But JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said the market was underestimating the possibility of US interest rates climbing higher.
‘The market is pricing a 20 per cent chance, I would price in a 40-50 per cent chance,’ the world’s most powerful banker told an event at Ireland’s foreign ministry. ‘I would put that as a cause for concern.’
Dimon also said he thought there was ‘complacency in markets’ in the wake of the tariff announcements.
Stocks in Brazil tanked after Trump hit it with 50 per cent tariffs, more than the expected 10 per cent.
AJ Bell head of financial analysis Danni Hewson said: ‘Investors seem to have been rather dismissive of Donald Trump’s latest tariff tangos, believing the President will back off if negotiations don’t go his way.
‘The crunch point is likely to be if a US-EU deal can’t get over the line, but even then the assumption seems to be that the new deadline, just like the last, is soft.’
David Morrison, analyst at Trade Nation, said the FTSE 100 was yesterday’s ‘standout performer’ across global markets as the miners enjoyed a boost from Trump’s copper imports threat.
Kathleen Brooks, an analyst at XTB, said investors did not believe Trump’s tariff threats.
‘The reason is that there has been very little concrete detail about how tariffs will be applied,’ she said. ‘Which is why we are seeing these sectors steal the spotlight: investors expect Trump to backtrack.’
And Hargreaves Lansdown’s head of money and markets Susannah Streeter said: ‘The moves are seen as posturing, and there is high expectation that there will be plenty of negotiations to head off higher duties.
‘The expectation is that he ultimately won’t want US manufacturers to pay inflated prices for this key component for crucial infrastructure.’
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