Highlights for this morning: OpenAI to launch AI browser, Trump names date to impose duties on copper

Donald Trump has named a date to impose a 50 percent duty on copper and threatened Brazil with a similar rate. OpenAI is close to releasing an artificial intelligence browser to compete with Alphabet's market-dominating Google Chrome. Nvidia briefly joined the club of companies with capitalization above $4 trillion. These and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of July 10.

OpenAI is close to releasing an artificial intelligence browser to compete with Alphabet's market-dominating Google Chrome, three knowledgeable sources told Reuters. The product is expected to arrive in the coming weeks. The sources said it is intended to fundamentally change the way users interact with the Internet and will be part of OpenAI's broader strategy to collect data on online behavior.

If the new browser is adopted by even a fraction of ChatGPT's 500 million weekly users, it could create serious pressure on a key element of Google's business model. Its Chrome browser plays an important role in Alphabet's advertising arm, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the company's revenue. Chrome provides user data for precise ad targeting and directs traffic to Google's default search engine.

The browser from OpenAI, according to two Reuters sources, will use a built-in chat interface similar to ChatGPT so that some of the user interactions will happen right inside - without going to third-party sites.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the 50 percent duty on copper imports that he announced earlier will take effect on August 1, reports CNBC. In a post on the Truth Social platform, he explained that the decision was made after receiving a "comprehensive assessment of national security threats."

According to Trump, copper is needed to make semiconductors, aircraft, ships, ammunition, data centers, lithium-ion batteries, radar, missile defense systems and even hypersonic weapons. Copper is the second most important material used by the U.S. Department of Defense, the president wrote.

Following the announcement, the price of the metal jumped 2.62%, extending the gains  of the previous session when it soared 13.12%, a record one-day gain since 1989. 

Still, three-month copper futures on the London Metal Exchange were down 1.63% by 9:20 a.m. Singapore time, reflecting an unusually wide differential between prices in the U.S. and the rest of the world, CNBC points out. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, U.S. consumers will have to pay about $15,000 per ton of copper by August, while the price in other countries will remain around $10,000.

At the same time, Trump unveiled a new batch of duty letters he sent to leaders of U.S. trading partners, including threatening Brazil with a 50 percent tariff. 

Nvidia's market value during trading on July 9 for the first time reached $4 trillion. The developer of high-performance AI chips became the world's first public company whose capitalization crossed this bar. Then, however, the chipmaker's securities slowed down;

The next potential catalyst for them will be the corporate reporting season, says Ken Mahoney, president of Mahoney Asset Management. "We'll see if the company manages to beat expectations and raise guidance - as it does regularly," he told Bloomberg. Nvidia shares don't look overvalued right now and still have upside potential, he said;

Amid a July 9 rally in tech stocks led by Nvidia, the bitcoin soared to a record, briefly hitting $112,052. Since the beginning of 2025, the largest cryptocurrency by capitalization has risen in value by about 20%. The last record was set on May 22.

"So far it looks like a retest of the May 22 high after which the selling started," said Ledn cryptocurrency lending platform investment director and former Barclays Investment Bank managing director John Glover, his quoted MarketWatch  Some investors are locking in profits, and a number of publicly traded companies, including Trump Media and GameStop, have recently announced plans to acquire bitcoins for their treasuries, the publication explains. "It's going to be a battle for who has more resources," Glover added.

According to the head of cryptocurrency investment company Maple Sid Powell, the further dynamics of bitcoin will depend on the macroeconomic environment and the progress of trade negotiations. If no progress can be made by August 1, it may increase pressure on the cryptocurrency. Advancement in negotiations and slowing inflation may support growth.

Japan's 20-year government bond auction scheduled for July 10 will draw renewed attention to rising yields amid the country's upcoming elections and growing concerns about fiscal expansion, reports Bloomberg.

The issue is one of several in key debt markets this week. Rising yields on long-dated bonds point to investor concerns about widening budget deficits. Although yields on Japan's 10-, 20- and 30-year bonds fell in morning trading hours in Tokyo, they remain close to recent highs.

"It's unlikely that large Japanese institutional investors, including banks and insurance companies, will actively participate in the auction," said Ryutaro Kimura, senior fixed-income strategist at AXA Investment Managers Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. Investors are waiting for the results of the July 20 election to gauge the impact on fiscal policy, he said.

Microsoft Chief Commercial Officer Judson Altoff said artificial intelligence tools are increasing productivity in sales, customer service and software development, reports Bloomberg. Thanks to AI, he said, Microsoft was able to save more than $500 million in call center costs alone last year.

The announcement comes just a week after Microsoft laid off more than 9,000 employees - it was the third wave of layoffs in 2025, with the total number of people cut approaching 15,000. It's unclear if the laid-off employees were directly replaced by AI or if this is about "normalizing" the workforce after the pandemic.

The situation was exacerbated by a post on LinkedIn by Xbox Game Studios producer Matt Turnbull, who suggested that employees feeling "overwhelmed" after layoffs at Microsoft (including cuts at Xbox) could use AI tools - like ChatGPT and Copilot - to cope with the "cognitive load" of losing their jobs. The post was later deleted.

Stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region started the trading day mixed.

- Japan's Nikkei 225 index was down 0.45% at the open, while the Topix index lost 0.54%. 

- South Korea's Kospi was up 1.23%, while the low-capitalization Kosdaq index rose 0.44%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index added 0.72%.

U.S. index futures, including the Nasdaq Composite, which closed at a record high the day before, are down within 0.3%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor