Markets scramble to assess Trump tariff fallout

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

As he likes, Donald Trump is once again setting the agenda, leaving the rest of the world to scramble as they figure out the practical effect of his latest tariff broadside, after previous levies imposed under executive order were ruled unconstitutional by the US supreme court. The EU has delayed ratifying a trade deal with the US until the implications of the US president’s latest erratic policy shift become clear and UK authorities warned retaliation was an option if the US reneged on its agreements.

Cliff Taylor sets out what we know and what we still need to find out about the latest twist in the US tariffs drama as markets predictably reacted poorly to the uncertainty.

Elsewhere, new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland show that January was a grim month for mortgage markets with first-time buyer approvals at a two-year-plus low and those moving homes getting the green light on the lowest number of loans on record outside a short three-month period when the world went into lockdown as Covid pandemic hit. Hugh Dooley has the figures.

Little cheer in the rental market either in Daft.ie’s latest rental market report, as Colin Hunt reports that the supply of homes to rent across the State has reached by far its lowest level in 20 years for the month of February as rents nationally jumped 4.4 per cent last year.

Another group with little to comfort them on dark commuter mornings are users of the M50. Hugh Dooley reports on new data showing that hiking toll charges has done nothing to address traffic congestion there.

Aer Lingus is beefing up its services from Cork, just weeks after announcing the closure of its Manchester transatlantic base. The airline is establishing new routes to Nice in France and Santiago de Compostela in Spain this summer, writes Barry O’Halloran, as well as making Prague a year-round destination and adding flights to its Glasgow service.

Alan Merriman, who founded private market investment firm Elkstone 15 years ago, is stepping down from the CEO chair, though he will remain as an executive director. His successor is the group’s managing director for private clients, Joe Bergin, writes Hugh.

Meanwhile, as doubts remain about her longer-term plans, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde has found herself at the centre of a row over alleged double standards over her €140,000 a year role on the board of the Bank of International Settlements. The problem? The ECB bars all staff for taking any third-party payments and those staff are now crying foul.

In personal finance, Siobhán Maguire takes a look at the cost of rearing children in Ireland. Already put at over €15,000 a year, experts in the area expect the figure to rise again this year.

In Q&A, a reader has a dilemma common to many people – they’ve received an inheritance from a family member in the UK but are all at sea when it comes to figuring out what that does or does not mean on tax.

And another reader fears that he could be forced to sell his home to make good on a loan secured against the property to cover the cost of his wife’s long-term residence in a nursing home under Fair Deal.

In his media column, Hugh Linehan takes issue with those people who, he says, should be paying serious attention to how artificial intelligence is developing but have chosen instead to take refuge in stereotypes. Incurious scepticism is not an adequate response to the questions AI raises, he writes.

Finally, transport minister Darragh O’Brien was burnishing his green credentials yesterday as he pressed the button for this year’s grant scheme to make battery electric vehicle purchase more affordable for taxi drivers. Cantillon was not the only one to notice the money on offer is down sharply on recent years. So much for zero emissions.

Cantillon also ponders whether the management buyout at Kennedy Wilson might give the property group the space to find a resolution to a high-profile and increasingly intractable row with tenants at Stillorgan Shopping Centre over parking charges.

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