{"id":283754,"date":"2026-02-06T10:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/283754\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T10:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:36:09","slug":"irish-shares-hit-amid-declines-in-europe-and-us-stock-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/283754\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish shares hit amid declines in Europe and US stock markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mining giants end plans for tie-up, while ECB decides to keep interest rates steady <\/p>\n

In Dublin, bank shares were also hit badly.<\/p>\n

Markets were also bruised as a planned \u20ac220bn tie-up between mining giants Glencore and Rio Tinto was shelved. The pair have had a long-running, on-off engagement that has seen them try to tie the knot before.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany wondered whether it might be third time lucky when Rio Tinto and Glencore got back around the table to discuss a deal which would have created the world\u2019s biggest mining company \u2013 but today it emerged it was not to be,\u201d Danni Hewson, head of financial \u00adanalysis at AJ Bell, said yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had been thought that Rio Tinto\u2019s new CEO might bridge the cultural differences between the two companies and succeed in getting the mega merger over the line. But with so much at stake and shareholders to appease, it seems ultimately the magic number couldn\u2019t be found, at least not right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s FTSE-100 closed down 0.9pc, while Germany\u2019s DAX was just under 0.5pc lower.<\/p>\n

Other indices in Europe also declined. Spain\u2019s IBEX-35 was down almost 2pc. Denmark\u2019s OMXC-25 was nearly 2.6pc lower.<\/p>\n

In Ireland, the ISEQ-20 also shed nearly 2.6pc compared with Wednesday\u2019s close. Shares in Bank of Ireland slumped 5.5pc to \u20ac16.68. AIB was 4.5pc lower, at \u20ac9.32.<\/p>\n

Ryanair saw its shares decline 2pc to \u20ac28.26. There were few gainers. FBD Holdings advanced 1.8pc to \u20ac16.50.<\/p>\n

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) both kept rates steady yesterday. The eurozone\u2019s central bank has been on hold since ending a year-long run of rate cuts in June, and surprisingly resilient growth coupled with easing price pressures have taken nearly all pressure off policymakers to provide any further support.<\/p>\n

\"European<\/p>\n

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde. Photo: Bloomberg<\/p>\n

In a statement, the ECB acknowledged continued uncertainties around global trade policy and geopolitical tensions but said an updated assessment still saw inflation stabilising at its 2pc target in the medium term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a broadly balanced situation at the moment,\u201d ECB president \u00adChristine Lagarde told a press conference. She said monetary policy remained in a \u201cgood place\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked what impact on its outlook last week\u2019s dollar tumble and rebound might have, Ms Lagarde said the rate-setting Governing Council had discussed the matter but noted that dollar depreciation was not new and went back as far as March 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Traders<\/p>\n

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. Photo: Bloomberg<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 seconds – Friday, February 6 <\/p>\n

The S&P 500 dropped to an over two-week low and the Nasdaq sank to its lowest level in more than two months by lunchtime yesterday in New York.<\/p>\n

The decline came as the AI theme came under renewed pressure after Alphabet\u2019s spending plans and chip maker Qualcomm\u2019s downbeat forecast rattled investors.<\/p>\n

Shares of Alphabet fell 4.2pc after the Google parent said it would double its capital expenditure this year, signalling another aggressive push to strengthen its position in the AI race. Qualcomm slid 8.2pc after forecasting second-quarter revenue and profit below estimates.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mining giants end plans for tie-up, while ECB decides to keep interest rates steady In Dublin, bank shares…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13395,72,14724,2606,292,61,60,10099,1899,2846,812],"class_list":["post-283754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-allied-irish-banks","tag-business","tag-christine-lagarde","tag-ecb","tag-germany","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-mulligan","tag-ryanair","tag-spain","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}