Morning Brief: August 1

• Trump's new tariffs will take effect on August 7. They will start operating a week later than planned so that the customs authorities have time to make changes. The White House noted that this is not a postponement. The United States has divided trading partners into groups: for 40 countries with small deficits, the duty will be 15%, for others – above 15%, and the base tariff for the rest – 10%. Duties for Canada will rise to 35% from 2025.

• India is at a political crossroads. The day before, Trump announced that he was imposing duties of 25% on India, as well as a «fine» for the purchase of Russian oil (about 5% more). A total of 30%. Thus, Trump is putting pressure on Modi: India is torn between the West and the East, cooperating with the United States against China, but remaining in the BRICS and actively trading with Russia.

• The United States is going to impose new sanctions against Russia. At the same time, Donald Trump said that he understands the ineffectiveness of additional restrictive measures against the Russian Federation, but still intends to introduce them.

• A large-scale bank audit was conducted in the UAE aimed at identifying the links of local companies with Russia. Now UAE banks are cleaning up their Russian «portfolios». About 20-30% of companies with Russian roots face notifications of inspections, restrictions on operations, or outright account closures.

• The price of bitcoin dropped to $115.5 thousand amid tariff concerns. Crypto markets have suffered from profit-taking amid growing concerns about US trade tariffs and interest rates. Attention is now fully focused on the upcoming non-farm jobs data for additional signals on the state of the U.S. economy.