Copper Tariff Delay Reverses Record Rally, Freeport Sinks 8%

Copper stocks sold off sharply Thursday after Washington postponed its decision on tariffs for refined copper, removing the catalyst that had driven the metal to record highs earlier in the week. Freeport-McMoRan fell roughly 8% to $70.43, while Teck Resources and Southern Copper each dropped about 7%.

The reversal came just days after LME three-month copper touched an intraday all-time high of $14,694 per ton on September 8, surpassing the prior record of $14,527.50 set in January. Freeport had climbed 7.2% to $77.99 on that move and was up roughly 44% year to date before Thursday's decline.

The episode underscores how much of copper's 2026 run has been tied to trade policy rather than physical demand. With the tariff timeline now open-ended, attention shifts back to underlying consumption from grid buildout and data center construction, and to whether producers can hold margins if the policy premium continues to unwind.