New U.S. Brazil Tariffs

Trending:

• Yesterday, July 9, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on all Brazilian imports, effective August 1, 2025, unless Brazil negotiates a trade deal. This replaces a 10% tariff from April 2025 and applies to all Brazilian goods, with Trump citing Brazil’s legal actions against former President Jair Bolsonaro as a “Witch Hunt,” alongside issues like free speech, elections, and alleged censorship demands on U.S. social media. He also initiated an investigation into Brazil’s trade practices under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which could lead to further tariffs. Trump stated the tariff could be avoided if Brazil or its companies invest in U.S. manufacturing, a condition aimed at boosting American industry.

• The tariff could significantly impact Brazil, the U.S.’s 15th largest trading partner, with $92 billion in two-way trade and a $7.4 billion U.S. surplus in 2024. Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin called Trump’s claims misinformation, defending Brazil’s independent judiciary, and suggested retaliatory tariffs under Brazil’s Law of Economic Reciprocity. This could spark a trade war, hurting Brazil’s exports, such as agriculture and copper, and raising costs for U.S. consumers and businesses. U.S. exporters to Brazil may also face losses if Brazil retaliates. With ongoing trade talks and the U.S. investigation, both nations face economic risks, and Brazil must navigate diplomatic or economic strategies to lessen the tariff’s effects.

Finance:

• On July 9, 2025, Nvidia became the first public company in history to surpass a $4 trillion market valuation, with its stock briefly trading at around $164 per share. This historic milestone follows a rapid rise: Nvidia entered the $1 trillion club in June 2023, passed $3 trillion in June 2024, and reached $4 trillion just one year later. The company’s meteoric growth is powered by surging demand for its AI-optimized GPUs, which are critical to the operations of major tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and OpenAI. In Q1 FY2025, Nvidia reported revenue of $44.1 billion—up 69% year-over-year—with net income of $18.8 billion and Q2 guidance set at $45 billion ±2%. Nvidia now accounts for more than 7% of the S&P 500, overtaking Apple and nearly matching Microsoft in market weight, making it a dominant force in the overall market’s performance.
• On July 8, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in Puerto Rico that Michael Shannon Sims, 48 (GA/FL), and Juan Carlos Reynoso, 57 (NJ/FL), were indicted for orchestrating a global crypto and forex investment scam under the OmegaPro banner, defrauding investors of over $650 million. Operating from January 2019 to 2023, they operated what prosecutors describe as a multi-level marketing Ponzi scheme offering “investment packages” promising 300% returns in 16 months, funded entirely in cryptocurrency.
• The indictment details Sims as the founder and promoter, and Reynoso overseeing Latin America and U.S.–Puerto Rico operations. They attracted victims via lavish global events—including projecting OmegaPro’s logo on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa—and flaunting luxury lifestyles on social media to portray legitimacy. In January 2023, they falsely claimed a “network hack” and shifting to a new platform called Broker Group, yet investors were locked out of withdrawals on both platforms. Funds—raised from thousands of victims—were laundered through crypto wallets and funneled to insiders, lining the pockets of the conspirators. Both defendants face conspiracy charges for wire fraud and money laundering, each carrying up to 40 years in prison (20 years per count). The DOJ’s charges highlight multi-agency collaboration (FBI, IRS-CI, HSI) and mark one of the largest crypto fraud prosecutions to date.

Development:

• On July 6, 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order instructing the U.S. Treasury and IRS to tighten rules for how wind and solar energy projects qualify for federal tax credits. New guidance, expected by August 18, will revise the “beginning of construction” criteria that currently allow developers to secure tax credits worth up to 30% of project costs. At present, projects can qualify by either starting significant on-site work or spending at least 5% of total costs upfront—a rule known as the “5% safe harbor.” The administration believes this has let some developers claim credits without making real progress, delaying the deployment of clean energy.
• The order requires Treasury to clearly define what counts as physical work, establish stricter deadlines, and strengthen documentation requirements. With over 50 gigawatts of utility-scale wind and solar projects underway and more than $300 billion in tax incentives on the line, the new rules could significantly influence how developers plan construction and manage supply chains. Many are closely watching how the updated guidance will impact deadlines for claiming tax credits through 2032.

Sports:

Wimbledon Results:

• Jannik Sinner (No. 1 seed) defeated Ben Shelton (No. 10 seed) 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4, advancing to the men’s semifinals on July 9, 2025.
• Novak Djokovic (No. 6 seed) beat Flavio Cobolli (No. 22 seed) 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, reaching his 14th Wimbledon men’s semifinal on July 9, 2025.
• Carlos Alcaraz (No. 2 seed) defeated Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 on July 8, 2025, setting up a men’s semifinal against Taylor Fritz.
• Taylor Fritz (No. 5 seed) defeated Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4) on July 8, 2025, advancing to the men’s semifinals.
• Iga Swiatek (No. 8 seed) defeated Liudmila Samsonova (No. 19 seed) 6-2, 7-5, reaching her first Wimbledon women’s semifinal on July 9, 2025.
• Belinda Bencic defeated Mirra Andreeva (No. 7 seed) 7-6(3), 7-6(2), advancing to the women’s semifinals on July 9, 2025.
• Aryna Sabalenka (No. 1 seed) defeated Laura Siegemund 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 on July 8, 2025, setting up a women’s semifinal against Amanda Anisimova.
• Amanda Anisimova (No. 13 seed) defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 7-6(9) on July 8, 2025, advancing to the women’s semifinals.

Tech:

• Yesterday, July 9, 2025, xAI released Grok 4, its newest AI model, during a livestream on X. Right now, only X Premium+ users and those with access to xAI’s API can use it, with early signs of it appearing in xAI’s system. A full public release is planned soon. Tests show it scoring 45% on Humanity’s Last Exam (a tough reasoning test), 87–88% on GPQA (science problems), 72–75% on SWE-Bench (coding), 95% on AIME (math), and 61.9% on USAMO-25 (advanced math). These results beat models like OpenAI’s o3 (26% HLE), GPT-4o (53.6% GPQA), and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro (34.5% USAMO). However, the scores aren’t independently checked, and xAI didn’t share some competitors’ results, like Claude 4 Opus’s coding scores.

• Grok 4 is great at solving complex problems, writing code, and pulling real-time info from X. Compared to models like GPT-4o, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Grok 4 is faster at reasoning but can’t handle as much text at once. On the same day, July 9, 2025, Linda Yaccarino stepped down as X’s CEO after two years, having started in May 2023 following Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the platform, then called Twitter. She helped rebuild X’s advertising business, kept it a top U.S. social app, and added features like a TV app, a Visa payment system, and deals with the NFL and NBA. With no new CEO named and xAI’s $33 billion acquisition of X in March 2025, X’s next steps depend on new leadership, AI tools like Grok, and to achieve Musk’s goal of an “Everything App”

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