*

Mexico's annual inflation eases in June, but core rate

climbs

*

Poll shows Brazil's inflation expected to slow in June

*

Chile's peso, Brazil's real take hit from copper tariffs

*

Mexican, Brazilian stocks set for third day of losses

(Updates with afternoon trading levels)

By Ragini Mathur, Purvi Agarwal and Shashwat Chauhan

July 9 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies were mixed,

while stocks declined on Wednesday as investors assessed steep

copper tariffs out of the United States and awaited President

Donald Trump's latest announcements in his ongoing trade war.

Trump said on Tuesday that he would impose a 50% tariff on

imported copper and soon introduce long-threatened levies on

semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

Chile's peso, the currency of the world's largest

copper producer, fell 0.7%. Chile is the biggest supplier of

copper to the United States, though such exports represent less

than 7% of its total refined copper shipments.

"The copper tariff will be negative for trade flows and the

Chilean peso in the longer run because they will hamper domestic

activity, exports, capital inflows to Chile," said Andres

Abadia, chief Latam economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"But the front running ahead of the implementation could be

a net positive for the Chilean economy and for the currency."

Chilean President Gabriel Boric said he had yet to hear from

the U.S. and called for "official" communication, while Mexican

President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Mexico could redirect the

copper it typically exports to the U.S. to bypass tariffs.

In Mexico, the peso fell 0.2% against the dollar,

retreating from its highest level since August reached earlier

in the day.

Mexico's

annual inflation rate

eased in June after rising for four consecutive months,

although core prices kept climbing.

"High core inflation with sticky services points to the

need to be cautious in the near-term calibration of monetary

policy and would support reducing the pace of cuts to 25bp at

the August meeting," said Alberto Ramos, head of Latin America

Economics Research at Goldman Sachs.

Brazil, one of the top copper exporters, also saw its

currency, the real, decline by 0.9%.

A Reuters poll showed that Brazil's monthly inflation is

expected to have slowed for the fourth time in a row in June.

Countries and trade blocs are racing to negotiate agreements

with the Trump administration to avoid substantial tariffs,

following the president's revised deadline of August 1.

Trump said in posts on his Truth Social media platform that,

starting August 1, he would impose a 20% tariff on goods from

the Philippines, 30% on goods from Sri Lanka, Algeria, Iraq, and

Libya, and 25% on Brunei and Moldova.

Late on Tuesday, he had said that he planned to issue "a

minimum of seven" tariff notices on Wednesday morning, with

additional announcements in the afternoon.

Latin American stocks were broadly lower,

dropping 1.2%.

Heavyweight Brazilian stocks fell 1.4%, while

Mexican blue chips lost 0.9%, with both markets poised

for their third consecutive daily decline.

Argentina's markets were closed for the Independence Day

holiday.

Also on Wednesday, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's

policy meeting showed that only a couple of officials believed

interest rates could be lowered as early as this month, while

the majority of policymakers remained concerned about

inflationary pressures.

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:

MSCI Emerging Markets 1226.89 -0.38

MSCI LatAm 2315.75 -1.23

Brazil Bovespa 137299.04 -1.44

Mexico IPC 56690.63 -0.86

Argentina Merval -

-

Chile IPSA 8303.85

-0.21

Colombia COLCAP 1674.93 -0.79

Brazil real 5.4927 -0.85

Mexico peso 18.6351 -0.19

Chile peso 947.5 -0.7

Colombia peso 4007.5 0.87

Peru sol 3.549 -0.21

Argentina peso -

(interbank) -

Argentina peso (parallel) -

-