Irish investors brace for more bad trade war news

Investors in global stocks and Irish shares, in particular, will learn this week whether the growing fears over escalating trade wars will send markets reeling again. Before last week the battle between President Donald Trump's White House with China over trade tariffs had shown signs of abating and stock markets appeared to be coming to terms with the effects on world economic growth.

The shares of Apple -- which has potentially a lot to lose from any retaliatory action by China because most of its iPhone parts are manufactured there -- are still up from year-end levels. The IMF has said that consumers in the US and China were "unequivocally the losers from trade tensions".