ASX shrugs off latest Trump tariff threats, Bitcoin hits new record high

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Donald Trump says he plans to increase blanket tariffs to 15 or 20 per cent on goods imported by the United States' trading partners. But it appears 'tariff fatigue' is setting in as the Australian dollar and share market largely ignore the US President's latest remarks. Meanwhile, Bitcoin hits a new record high, as finance presenter David Chau explains.

Transcript

00:00Another day, another tariff announcement.

00:04This time, Donald Trump is thinking of raising the blanket tariff rate to as high as 20%.

00:09Now, this could be bad news for Australia's exports,

00:12which have gotten off pretty lightly so far, with a US tariff rate of just 10%.

00:17And there was a noticeable drop for the Aussie dollar after the president's latest thought bubble.

00:22But it recovered pretty quickly to 65.8 US cents,

00:26while Bitcoin went above US$118,000, which is a new record high for the cryptocurrency.

00:32Now, locally, there were some signs of tariff fatigue for the ASX and all odds,

00:37which fell by just 0.1%, so barely anything.

00:41Though the best performing stocks were two rare earth miners,

00:44Iluca Resources and Linus Rare Earths, which jumped 16% and 22%,

00:49not because of anything special they did,

00:51but because a little-known company in the US called MP Materials

00:55which also mines rare earths has picked up the US Defence Department as its biggest shareholder.

01:01Essentially, the government there will pay US$400 million to control a 15% stake.

01:07The Trump administration has been keen to prop up the local critical minerals industry

01:12so it doesn't have to rely so much on its frenemy China,

01:15which currently dominates that market.

01:17Until this deal was finalised,

01:18its current largest shareholders are Hancock Prospecting,

01:22which is owned by billionaire Gina Reinhardt,

01:24and Sheng He Resources, which is partly owned by the Chinese government.

01:29Who'd have thought?

01:30Now, in commodities, oil prices fell while gold and iron ore rose.

01:34And overseas, global markets were mostly higher,

01:37especially Wall Street, which hit a new record

01:40as it continues to ignore the risks of a global trade war.

01:43And that's finance.

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