Cuban crisis used to assess North Korean market hit

Analysts are pouring over market charts of the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s and the war of words over North Korea to assess whether investors’ fright will calm any time soon.

Amid the sabre-rattling between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea’s missile tests, European stock markets were hit for a third day. Some Irish leading shares, including CRH, have been notably in the firing line because the companies earn a large part of their earnings abroad.

After the South Korean’s Kospi shares index, Ireland’s Iseq Overall index has been among one of the worst-hit stock markets. It has fallen over 2% during a week in which US president Donald Trump doubled up on his “fire and fury” comments with a “locked and loaded” tweet.