Trump vows new 10% global tariff after Supreme Court rules sweeping duties are illegal

Good morning. Here’s what happened overnight and what you need to know this weekend.

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1.

Tariff takedown: US President Donald Trump vowed to impose a new 10% “global tariff” using an alternative law, after the US Supreme Court ruled that his signature tariffs were illegal. Trump said he would impose a 10% levy on top of “our normal tariffs already being charged”, using the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the President to set import restrictions for up to 150 days. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that revenue collected from tariffs will be “virtually unchanged” in 2026, despite Friday’s ruling, as the administration will use other mechanisms to replace the measures. During a press conference responding to the landmark repudiation from the country’s top court, Trump slammed the 6–3 ruling handed down earlier in the day, saying it was “deeply disappointing and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court”. The decision held that the President had exceeded his authority by invoking a federal emergency-powers law to impose his so-called reciprocal tariffs globally. The administration’s targeted import taxes to address fentanyl trafficking were also found to exceed the President’s authority. Three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, dissented, with Kavanaugh stating that the refund process, which could total as much as USD170 billion ($240.24 billion), was “likely to be a mess”. California governor Gavin Newsom urged Trump to refund the billions collected under the regime and EU lawmakers will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the bloc’s deal with the US following the Supreme Court decision. (US Supreme Court)(WSJ)(Bloomberg)(CNBC)(ABC)(White House)(FT)(Capital Brief)

2.

Positive news: Stocks gained on Friday after the US Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s sweeping tariff policy, with the S&P 500 up 0.69% at close, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.9%. The Dow Jones added 230.81 points, or 0.47%, recovering from a 200-point loss earlier in the day on disappointing economic data. E-commerce stocks including Amazon and Etsy popped after the ruling, with the stocks closing up over 2.5% and 8% respectively. Shares in Shopify, Wayfair and eBay also rose. Elsewhere, shares in cybersecurity firms including CrowdStrike and Cloudflare slumped after AI lab Anthropic unveiled a new security feature within its Claude AI model, ‘Claude Code Security’. Earlier in the day traders were faced with downbeat data on the US economy, with GDP inching up just 1.4% in the fourth quarter — far below the 2.5% gain that economists polled by Dow Jones had anticipated. The core personal consumption expenditures price index, a preferred gauge for inflation used by The Fed, held steady in December at 3%, in line with expectations but above the Fed’s 2% target. (CNBC)(WSJ)

3.

Obstacle down: Paramount Skydance said it has cleared a key US antitrust hurdle, a signal of support for its USD108 billion ($152.30 billion) takeover pursuit of Warner Bros Discovery. Paramount said in an SEC filing on Friday that it now has “no statutory” impediment in the US to closing Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. The media group, whose bid is funded by Oracle chief and Trump donor Larry Ellison, said that it has complied with the US Justice Department’s second request review process, with the expiration of the 10-day waiting period essentially signalling that no antitrust issues have been flagged in its proposed tie-up. Despite having already signed an agreement to sell its streaming and studio business to Netflix in a USD72 billion deal, Warner Bros agreed to reopen talks with Paramount earlier this week after it submitted a revised hostile bid and indicated it is open to raising its offer by USD1 per share. (SEC filing)(Bloomberg)(FT)

4.

Pressure strike: US President Trump told reporters on Friday that he is considering an initial limited military strike on Iran to force it to meet his demands for a nuclear deal. Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that such an attack could come within days and would target a few military or government sites. If Iran still continued to refuse to comply with Trump’s directive to end its nuclear enrichment, the US would then respond with a broader campaign targeting regime facilities and potentially to topple the Tehran regime. The US has amassed the biggest military force in the Middle East since 2003 with Trump warning Iran that it has 10 to 15 days at most to strike a deal on its nuclear program. US Congress could vote on whether to block Trump’s ability to strike Iran without lawmakers’ approval as early as next week. Meanwhile, the price of Elon Musk’s Starlink terminals is soaring to as much as USD4,000 ($5,641) in Iran, as people fear a war with the US could trigger a nationwide internet shutdown. (WSJ)(NYT)(Reuters)(CNBC)

5.

Good gig: After six years of financing those overlooked by traditional banks and venture capital, Tractor Ventures’ Matt Allen is turning his focus to a new group, long shut out of the funding models available to other founders: independent musicians. Allen, who is also the co-founder of Side Stage Ventures, has added another notch to his belt, joining Australian independent music company Community Music as head of artist capital to provide in-house venture capital expertise. Community Music — launched by Jaddan Commerford’s Unified record label, which manages artists such as Ocean Alley and Vance Joy — is a platform providing distribution, marketing and monetisation tools for artists, allowing them to manage their catalogue independently. With the appointment of Allen, Community Music aims to accelerate its funding program which to date has deployed over $3 million of the $10 million committed to independent artists in late 2024. Community Music, which has had its artists chart in the ARIA Top 10 albums on 9 occasions, intends to support independent musicians and labels to retain their independence and the rights to their catalogues. (Capital Brief)

6.

Black market blunder: An IT slipup revealed an apparent smuggling ring that has moved at least USD90 billion ($127 billion) of Russian oil and is playing a key part in funding Russia’s war in Ukraine, an investigation by the Financial Times found. The paper identified 48 seemingly independent companies working from different addresses that appear to be cooperating to disguise the origin of the Russian oil, particularly oil from the Kremlin-controlled Rosneft. The network was discovered as they all share a single private email server. Since sanctions were imposed on Russian crude oil, companies have been motivated to hide the origins of sanctioned oil, masking blacklisted entities involved in trades and prices paid for the oil. Three EU officials said the findings could be used as evidence to impose fresh sanctions and that entities in the network, one official told the FT, were already “well on our radar”. (FT)

7.

IPO plans: I-MED’s acquisition of Radiology Group comes as it inches towards an IPO, with CEO Shrey Viranna explaining the deal supports the company’s sustainable growth and is separate from its private equity backer Permira’s consideration of offloading the business. “We’ve always taken a view on our growth, around it being sustainable and the right answer for the business we run and the patients we serve, which is independent of a transaction or change in shareholding, should that ever happen,” Viranna told Capital Brief. Viranna said preparations for an IPO kicked off in November, with the company in the midst of selecting an additional investment banking partner alongside Jefferies and Morgan Stanley, according to The Australian. The paper had earlier reported that potential suitors Macquarie Asset Management and Bain Capital walked away from takeover talks in 2024, while negotiations with Stonepeak ended in 2025. I-MED Radiology is touted as Australia and New Zealand’s largest combined diagnostic imaging network, generating $1.45 billion in revenue in FY25. (Capital Brief)

8.

Investigation continues: The British government is considering introducing legislation to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles, from the line of royal succession. Mountbatten-Windsor remains eighth in line to the throne and is “counsellor of state”, which means he could deputise for the king in the event that he was incapacitated. The move would strip the former Prince of his last official roles after losing other titles in October over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor was released under investigation on Thursday evening, 11 hours after his arrest for suspicion of misconduct in public office. The arrest comes after a new tranche of ‘Epstein Files’ were released by the US Justice Department, with documents showing Mountbatten-Windsor worked closely with Epstein and his associates, sharing information and business ideas. UK Metropolitan Police are assessing information about whether London airports were used for trafficking and sexual exploitation and are contacting former and serving close protection officers who might have worked closely with Mountbatten-Windsor. (FT)(BBC)(Met Police)