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US tariffs on copper imports could be coming within several weeks, months earlier than the deadline for a decision, according to people familiar with the matter. Copper traded in New York rose to a record.US President Donald Trump in February directed the Commerce Department to open an investigation into potential copper tariffs and submit a report within 270 days, though it’s now expected to be resolved sooner, said the people who asked not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. The investigation already is looking like little more than a formality, some of the people said, with Trump having regularly said he plans to impose the tariffs.The administration is proceeding expeditiously with the review, and a conclusion could be possible well before the 270-day deadline, an official familiar with the process said, speaking on condition of anonymity.The White House declined to comment. In February, Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, said the investigation would proceed quickly.“You will see our new secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick, will move in what I like to call Trump time, which is quickly as possible to get results of the investigation on the president’s desk for possible action,” Navarro said.Trump has threatened to impose a duty of as much as a 25% on all copper imports, a move that could roil the global market for one of the world’s most ubiquitous metals, which is used in pipes and electrical cables.Implementing copper tariffs with such haste would stand in stark contrast to the investigations that preceded steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by Trump during his first administration. They took some 10 months to complete. Copper in New York rose as much as 3.1% to a record of $5.3740 a pound, before paring its gain to around $5.3005 a pound. The benchmark price in London fell slightly to $10,100 a ton, widening the gap between the two contracts to more than $1,600 a ton.“Copper is rising quickly, especially in New York, to price in the upcoming 25% tariffs,” said Xu Wanqiu, an analyst at Cofco Futures Co. “Now the risk is prices will quickly retreat if the tariffs are short of 25%,” she said. The large price differential between London and New York created a worldwide dash among traders and dealers to ship the red metal to America to capture a lucrative premium. Such a move has left the rest of the world, especially top consumer China, short of the metal. The president, in his March 5 address to a joint session of Congress, stirred uncertainty when he sought to defend his tariffs. Trump said he had imposed a 25% tariff on foreign aluminum, steel, lumber and copper — a possible slip of the tongue given he only set in motion a formal copper investigation weeks prior.Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. in notes to clients have said they expect the US will impose a 25% copper tariff by year’s end. The world’s largest copper-trading firm, Trafigura, has said the price could hit $12,000, from about $10,000 currently.

Mumbai: Investors looking to put money in mid-cap funds through Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) and do not want to risk losing capital might need a minimum time frame of eight years, if past data are to go by. A study by asset valuation analytics firm Valuemetrics Technologies on monthly rolling returns for SIPs between April 2005 and March 2025 in the Nifty Midcap 150 Total Returns Index showed such investments made for three and five years have incurred losses (see table).SIPs made in this index for 8 to 15 years in this time frame have made money. In comparison, for an investor to be sure that her small cap index SIP investments did not lose money in this period, she had to continue for at least 12 years.Historically, returns from midcaps have tended to be lower compared with small-cap, but the risks of investing in this segment have also been lower.For instance, the highest return made in a three-year SIP in the Nifty Midcap 150 TRI in these 20 years was 37.5% on an annualised basis, lower than 42.1% in Nifty Small Cap 250 Total Returns Index.119505792The value of three-year SIPs in the mid-cap index eroded by as much as 63% in the worst-case scenario in this period, while for small caps it is slightly higher at 64.7%, the study showed. Investors lost 8.2% on an annualised basis in a 5-year SIP in the mid-cap index, but if the SIP continued for a tenure of eight years, the minimum return increased to 1.7%. Investors who continued doing SIPs in Nifty Midcap 150 TRI for 8, 10, 12 and 15 years did not lose money at all, according to the study."Many midcap companies have proven business ideas that are on a high growth track. Hence, they generally tend to have lower volatility than small caps, " says Nikhil Gupta, Founder, Sage Capital.The Association of Mutual Funds in India classifies mid caps as companies ranked between 101and 250 by market capitalisation.Since September 25, when the Nifty Mid cap 150 hit a peak, the index is down 14.45% as against the 13.7% decline in the Nifty Small Cap 250. The value of SIP investments in the Nifty Midcap 150 is down 7.5%. The value of such staggered investments in the Nifty 50 is down 1% in the same period."Conservative investors could make a satellite allocation of 20-30% to established mid and small cap funds through SIPs, with a time frame of 8-10 years," said Anup Bhaiya, Founder, Money Honey Financial Services.(ET's March 25 edition published a similar analysis on small-cap funds)

The United States said an agreement has been reached to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea as it wrapped up three days of talks Tuesday with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia on prospective steps toward peace. US experts met separately with Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Riyadh, and the White House issued separate joint statements about the talks with Ukraine and Russia. It said the sides have "agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea." Details of the prospective deal are yet to be released, but it appears to mark a revival of a 2022 agreement to ensure safe transit via Ukraine's Black Sea ports that was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey and was halted by Russia the following year. Russia had said the agreement failed to ensure safety of its Black Sea exports. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in televised comments Tuesday that Moscow is open to the revival of the agreement but warned that Russian interests must be protected. In an apparent reference to the Russian demands, the White House statement on the talks with Russia noted that the US "will help restore Russia's access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions." The White House statement also mentioned that the parties agreed to develop measures for implementing an agreement reached in President Donald Trump's calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ban strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine. After the Trump-Putin call last week, the White House said the partial ceasefire would include ending attacks on "energy and infrastructure," while the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to "energy infrastructure." Meanwhile, a Kremlin official said Tuesday that the talks between US and Russian officials in Riyadh the previous day would likely lead to further contacts between Washington and Moscow, but that no concrete plans have yet been made. The three days of meetings - which did not include direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations - are part of an attempt to hammer out details on a partial pause in the 3-year-old war in Ukraine. It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire - which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week -- with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles. Future US-Russia contacts expectedOn Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the the outcome of the US-Russia talks in Riyadh "has been reported in the capitals" and was currently being "analysed" by Moscow and Washington, but that the Kremlin has no plans to release further details of what was discussed to the public. "We're talking about technical negotiations, negotiations with immersion in details," Peskov said, adding that while there are currently no plans for Trump and Putin to speak, such a conversation could be quickly organised if the need arises. "There is an understanding that the contacts will continue, but there is nothing concrete at the moment," Peskov said. He added that that there are no plans to hold a three-way meeting between Russia, the US and Ukraine. Senior Russian lawmaker Grigory Karasin, who took part in the Russia-US talks in Riyadh on Monday, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the conversation was "very interesting, difficult, but quite constructive." "We were at it all day from morning until late at night," Karasin was quoted by the agency as saying on Tuesday. Cross-border strikes continueThe Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine had "continued deliberate drone strikes against Russia's civilian energy facilities." One Ukrainian drone attack on Monday knocked down a high-voltage power line linking the Rostov nuclear power plant with the city of Tikhoretsk in the southern Krasnodar region, the ministry said, adding that another drone strike had occurred on the Svatovo gas distribution station in the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Luhansk. "Zelenskyy confirms his inability to observe agreements and makes it impossible for outside guarantors of any potential agreements to control him," the ministry said. In Ukraine, the number of people injured Monday in a Russian missile strike on the centre of the city of Sumy rose to 101 people including 23 children, according to the Sumy regional administration. The strike on Sumy, across the border from Russia's Kursk region which was partially occupied by Ukraine since August, hit residential buildings and a school, which had to be evacuated due to the attack. Meanwhile, Russian forces launched one ballistic missile and 139 long-range strike and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Those attacks affected seven regions of Ukraine and injured multiple people.