Copper Selloff Knocks Freeport and Teck Down About 7%

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) closed at 71.21, down 6.59%, and Teck Resources (TECK) at 65.90, down 6.31%, on Sept. 10, 2026, after a report that the White House has not yet decided on refined copper tariffs sent copper and silver prices sharply lower and gold sliding.

The mining trade that had carried base and precious metals equities higher through the summer stalled hard on Thursday. Copper producers took the worst of it: Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) finished the session at 71.21, down 6.59% from the previous close of 76.23, while Teck Resources (TECK) ended at 65.90, a drop of 6.31% from 70.34. Both names spent the day near their lows — Freeport traded as low as 68.85 and Teck as low as 64.46 — and neither managed to reclaim the prior close at any point in the range.

The proximate trigger, according to Mining.com, was a report that the White House has still not reached a decision on tariffs for refined copper. Copper and silver prices fell sharply and gold slid alongside them, unwinding in a single session a chunk of the premium that had been built into North American copper equities on the assumption that import duties were coming.

Why an Undecided Tariff Moves the Price More Than a Decided One

Refined copper is the cathode-grade metal that goes into wire, cable and busbars — the form that actually crosses borders in volume. A US tariff on it would, in theory, widen the gap between the American domestic price and the international benchmark, because buyers inside the country would have to pay the duty on imported units while domestically produced cathode would clear at whatever the local market bore. Traders had been positioning for exactly that: buy the metal sitting inside the tariff wall, buy the producers that supply it.

The problem with a policy that has not been decided is that it cannot be priced. Every week without a determination erodes the value of an inventory position built in anticipation of one, because carrying metal costs money and the option it represents keeps shortening. When a report lands saying the decision has not been made, the fastest response is to sell the anticipation rather than wait to be right slowly. That is what appears to have happened to copper on Thursday, and the equities followed the metal down with the leverage they always carry.

Silver fell in the same move, which matters because silver sits awkwardly between industrial and monetary demand. When it trades with copper rather than with gold, it is being treated as a manufacturing input. Gold's slide was the milder of the three, but it removed the usual offset — in a session where precious metals hold firm, diversified miners with gold exposure cushion a base-metals selloff. Thursday offered no such cushion.

The Size of the Move Against a Modestly Lower Tape

This was not a case of miners falling because everything fell. The broad market was soft but orderly. The S&P 500 tracker closed at $757.83, down 0.60% on the day. The Nasdaq 100 tracker ended at $708.69, off 1.06%. The Dow tracker settled at $520.75, down 0.63%. Against that backdrop, a decline of roughly 6.6% in Freeport and 6.3% in Teck is a sector-specific event by a wide margin — roughly ten times the move in the S&P 500 proxy.

In dollars-and-cents terms on the quoted figures, Freeport shed 5.02 points from its prior close and Teck 4.44. Those are single-session moves of the kind that normally accompany an earnings miss or a mine outage, not a procedural update on trade policy. That tells you how much of the recent rally was policy expectation rather than operating performance.

What a $100 Billion Valuation Argument Actually Rests On

Mining.com notes that Freeport's $100 billion valuation is back in play after the drop. That is the crux of the debate for anyone holding the stock: a copper producer's market capitalization is a function of the price it receives per pound multiplied by pounds it can deliver, discounted over the life of its reserves. Shift the assumed realized price and the whole stack moves.

A tariff regime that lifted the US domestic copper price would lift the realized price for metal sold into the United States — and Freeport, with its American operations, is the most direct listed way to own that outcome. Strip the tariff assumption out and the valuation has to be carried by the global benchmark price instead, which is the same price every producer on earth receives. That is a materially less exciting story, and Thursday's session was the market testing how much of the share price depended on the exciting version.

Teck's decline of almost the same magnitude underlines that this was a copper-complex repricing rather than a company-specific one. Two producers with different asset bases, different jurisdictions and different capital structures moved within about a third of a percentage point of each other. When correlations tighten like that, the market is trading the commodity, not the companies.

What Comes Next for Copper Equities

Three things are worth tracking from here.

• The tariff determination itself. Until Washington rules one way or the other, copper equities carry a binary they cannot hedge. A decision — even an unfavourable one — removes the discount that uncertainty imposes.
• Whether silver keeps trading with copper. If silver continues to move as an industrial metal rather than a monetary one, the precious-metals hedge inside diversified mining portfolios stops working, and drawdowns get deeper.
• Where the metal price settles versus where the equities settle. Miners typically overshoot the commodity in both directions. If copper stabilizes and the producers do not recover with it, that is a signal the market has re-rated the whole group rather than simply repriced a policy bet.

None of Thursday's action changes what either company mines or how much of it comes out of the ground next quarter. What changed is the price the market is willing to assume for that output. For investors who bought copper miners as a trade-policy instrument, the session was a reminder that the instrument only pays when the policy arrives. For those who own them as a bet on electrification demand, it was a discount — provided the underlying metal price holds.

Prices cited are the last traded levels as of 20:00 GMT on Sept. 10, 2026, with the market closed.

Key facts

• Freeport-McMoRan (FCX): 71.21 at the close, -6.59%, as of 20:00 GMT Sept. 10, 2026
• Teck Resources (TECK): 65.90 at the close, -6.31%, as of 20:00 GMT Sept. 10, 2026
• Trigger: Report that the White House has not decided on refined copper tariffs
• Broad market: S&P 500 tracker $757.83 (-0.60%); Nasdaq 100 tracker $708.69 (-1.06%)

Frequently asked questions

How far did Freeport-McMoRan and Teck Resources fall?

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) closed at 71.21 on Sept. 10, 2026, down 6.59% from its previous close of 76.23, with a session low of 68.85. Teck Resources (TECK) ended at 65.90, down 6.31% from 70.34, having traded as low as 64.46. Both finished near the bottom of their daily ranges.

What caused the copper mining selloff?

A report that the White House has not yet reached a decision on tariffs for refined copper removed a policy assumption that traders had built into North American copper equities. Copper and silver prices fell sharply and gold slid, and the producers most exposed to a US domestic price premium dropped hardest.

Why would a copper tariff help US producers?

A tariff on imported refined copper — the cathode-grade metal used in wire and cable — would raise the cost of foreign units inside the United States, widening the gap between the domestic price and the international benchmark. Producers selling into the US market would realize a higher price per pound, which flows directly into earnings and valuation.

Was the wider stock market down on the same day?

Yes, but far less. The S&P 500 tracker closed at $757.83, off 0.60%, the Nasdaq 100 tracker at $708.69, down 1.06%, and the Dow tracker at $520.75, down 0.63%. Losses of roughly 6% to 7% in the copper names were therefore sector-specific rather than a market-wide decline.

What does the $100 billion valuation reference mean for Freeport?

Mining.com reported that Freeport's $100 billion valuation is back in play following the drop. A copper miner's market value depends on the price it expects to realize for future output. Removing an assumed tariff-driven US price premium lowers that assumption, and the share price has to be justified by global benchmark pricing instead.

Why did silver fall alongside copper rather than with gold?

Silver has both industrial and monetary demand. When it trades down with copper, the market is treating it as a manufacturing input rather than a store of value. On Sept. 10 silver fell sharply with copper while gold also slid, removing the usual precious-metals offset that cushions diversified miners during base-metals selloffs.

Sources

• Mining stocks rally comes to abrupt halt as copper, silver prices plummet and gold slides — Mining.com

Photo: Mark Stebnicki · Pexels Licence — source