EMERGING MARKETS-FX, stocks lower as Trump expands US tariff plans

By Ragini Mathur and Purvi Agarwal

July 9 (Reuters) - Most emerging market currencies and stocks were lower on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his global trade offensive with tariffs on copper and pointed to more announcements during the day.

Trump threatened a 50% tariff on copper imports, late on Tuesday, and also indicated that long-threatened levies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals were coming soon.

Most emerging market currencies weakened against the U.S. dollar, with MSCI's index .MIEM00000CUS down 0.1%, set for its fourth consecutive session of declines and trading near two-week lows.

South Africa's currency ZAR= dropped 0.3% while stocks .JTOPI were little changed on the day. The country is a major producer of minerals and precious metals, and the rand is expected to closely track commodity tariff developments from Washington.

The rand was already reeling from losses after Trump reiterated on Tuesday his threat of 10% tariffs on the BRICS bloc, of which South Africa is a member.

Chile, the world's largest copper producer, remains in wait-and-see mode after the tariffs, as exports to the U.S. count for less than 7% of Chile's refined copper exports.

Chile's peso CLP= was muted following the announcement on Tuesday.

Markets were bracing for more trade-related announcements, with Trump signalling at least seven could come on Wednesday morning.

Investors had started looking past Trump's tariff rhetoric due to his back and forth stance on the duties, but have started to reevaluate their holdings as announcements this week have revived volatility in markets.

"It's physically impossible to negotiate so many deals and there needs to be more time given... so we will see Trump applying additional pressure, lashing out with higher tariffs, and that's pretty much normal negotiation tactics," said Yerlan Syzdykov, CIO of emerging markets at Amundi.

"The market was preparing (for copper tariffs), but the magnitude clearly took them by surprise and that's rattling them today," he said.

In the Middle East, Turkey's lira TRYTOM=D3 was flat, while the country's stocks .XU100 gained 0.6%.

Most emerging European currencies were flat against euro.

However, the Hungarian forint EURHUF= fell 0.4% ahead of the local central bank's minutes from its June meeting.

Any clues on future monetary policy direction, especially dovish signals, will be scrutinized.

Regional stocks in emerging Europe were mixed, with Hungary .BUX up 0.6% and Poland .WIG20 down 0.4%.

Heavyweight Asian stocks were also mixed, though in South Korea .KS11 they touched a near four-year high on optimism around favourable market policies.

MSCI's global emerging market stocks gauge .MSCIEF was down 0.4%.

Elsewhere, Malaysia's ringgit MYR= was down 0.3% after the central bank delivered an interest rate cut for the first time in five years.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** Vietnam to introduce measures to cope with US tariffs, trade official says

** China's factory-gate deflation worst in 2 years as trade war bites

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For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see CEE/

For TURKISH market report, see .IS

For RUSSIAN market report, see RU/RUB