TRIBUTES FLOW IN FOR DESIGN GENIUS - Tributes have been paid to the Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, whose death was announced overnight. Mr Jobs, who was 56, had spent many years battling pancreatic cancer and resigned as Apple chief executive in August. He is credited with being a technology visionary who helped change the world's way of interacting with computing and mobile phones as well as radically reshaping the music industry. Leading tributes from around the world, US President Barack Obama described Steve Jobs as a visionary and the embodiment of the American Dream. He said a measure of Mr Jobs success was the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. There is a long list of those inventions - in the 1970s there was the Apple II followed in the 1980s by the Apple Mac. More recently came the iPOD, the iPhone and the iPad, all of them revolutionary consumer technologies that reshaped industries and shaped the age. Under his stewardship, Apple has become arguably the most valuable publicly traded company in the US. Share trading in Apple was suspended on the Nasdaq just before the news of his death was announced.
One Irish man who met Steve Jobs was former IDA chief executive Kieran McGowan. He says Mr Jobs was in Ireland in the 1980s to announce 250 new jobs for the Apple plant in Cork. Mr McGowan says that although Mr Jobs was a quiet man, his genius for design and innovation was evident. He said that while he was a man of few words, he placed a huge emphasis on innovation and had a different way of looking at technology. Apple still employs around 2,500 people in Cork.
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NO RATE CHANGES EXPECTED FROM TRICHET AT LAST ECB MEETING - The European Central Bank makes an interest rate decision today. Today also marks Jean-Claude Trichet's last meeting as ECB President. Oliver Gilvarry, head of research at Dolmen Stockbrokers, says he predicts that the ECB will keep rates on hold today. He says that while a 25 basis - or even a 50 basis - point cut had been talked about, the latest inflation figures from the euro zone show prices moving up to 3%. This high rate has now dashed hopes for a cut this month. He says the ECB remains concerned about the euro zone debt crisis and is pushing European politicians to come up with solutions instead of relying on the bank. Mr Gilvarry predicts that the ECB will cut rates by 75 basis points by the end of next year, but says the cuts won't start today.
