Global investors are assessing the potential impact of President Donald Trump's second term in office, and appear encouraged that he would not immediately launch trade tariffs against some of America's largest trading partners.
Peter Brown, Managing Director of Baggott Investment Partners, said a tariff war would cause serious economic stress globally.
"He rode back from the immediate tariffs though he has put an executive order directing the federal agencies to begin studying the trade relationships with different countries," Peter Brown told Morning Ireland.
"But I think we have moved away from these blanket tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico which would have been very damaging globally," he said.
He described the tariff threat as a negotiating tactic, which does not worry investors. "We might get tariffs used as a threat to negotiate, so the markets are pleased with that, and that's why the markets are so steady."
Wall Street was closed yesterday for Martin Luther King Jr Day, but US stock market futures rose as investors bet a series of immediate actions by President Trump would boost the US economy, especially in areas like the banking and energy sectors.
In his inaugural address, President Trump promised to "drill, baby, drill".
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However, the MD of Baggot Investment Partners does not believe oil and gas companies want to drill. "They are facing a situation where they are producing a product that may not be around in 20 years time," he said.
"They are also looking at the term of a presidency of four years. The next president in might be green. Oil companies won't just pour money into drilling to produce a product that might not be needed or that the next president might reverse. I don't see 'drill baby drill' happening at all."
US tech titans had the best seats at the inauguration - beside the Trump family. Donald Trump has surrounded himself with 'tech bros' and has appointed Elon Musk, CEO of X, to head up the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency.
Does that bode well for tech stocks?
Mr Brown said they should get a bounce. "But the issue with tech stocks is going to very much depend on the outlook for inflation and interest rates in the US. That's what's going to drive the stock market forward."
He said the technology sector's current price to earnings ratio is 50, which he described as "astonishing". He said, in his opinion, tech stocks are "very dangerous as an investment".
The tech CEOs, particularly Elon Musk, are also likely to influence the president's views on cryptocurrency. The industry expects Trump to fulfill his "crypto president" campaign promises.
The price of Bitcoin has surged, while the President and First Lady even introduced their own meme coins over the weekend. "There is a role for cryptocurrency into the future, there is no doubt about that," Mr Brown said.
On the meme coins introduced by the Trumps, he said, "A cryptocurrency coin has got to have a reason to exist. All these other coins will fall by the wayside, but digital and cryptocurrency that's in the future."
