The Trump effect, rising fuel prices and the issue with bananas – here’s what you need to know from Money this week
By Jess Sharp, Money live reporter
It feels like we are saying this a lot recently – but all attention has been on Donald Trump this week.
The US president’s swapping and changing decisions on tariffs has sent markets spinning around the world.
On Tuesday, Trump placed tariffs on America’s three largest trading partners – China, Mexico and Canada.
Chinese imports faced a 20% fee, while goods from Mexico and Canada were slapped with 25% levies.
A day later, Trump changed his mind somewhat, announcing a tariff exemption for carmakers supplying the US.
Within another 24 hours, he went even further, confirming a one-month reprieve for most goods coming from Mexico and Canada.
That does mean tariffs are still coming, though, and our data and economics editor Ed Conway has explained why they are such a big deal…
Trump’s unpredictability has further fuelled concerns about the trajectory of the American economy, which has weakened the dollar.
The dollar index was down 3.7% since last week and was on course for its third-biggest weekly drop since 2020.
Sterling shot up against the dollar and tumbled against the euro, meaning buying goods in dollars is cheaper than earlier this week, while euro-priced items are more expensive.
US stocks were heading toward the close of a brutal week after job market data came in closer to expectations than predicted.
At the time of writing this, the S&P 500 was on track for its worst week since September.
Conway looked at the wider impact of Trump’s tariffs on the US economy in the piece below…
The focus was on the job market, where the US labour department said employers added 151,000 more jobs to the economy last month – slightly below economists’ expectations.
Later this evening, we are expecting Trump to speak about Bitcoin and AI, which could cause more market movements.
He has already confirmed that the US is going to start investing in crypto to create a “strategic reserve”.
You can read more about that below…
More cuts in the UK mortgage market
Back on home soil, we saw competition heating up in the mortgage market as two more lenders launched sub-4% deals.
Barclays announced one of the lowest fixed rate mortgage deals on the market with a five-year fix at 3.96%.
Unfortunately, it was only available to customers buying an energy-efficient new-build home directly from the builder or developer, with a 40% deposit.
TSB launched a two-year 60% LTV deal at 3.99%, with a £1,495 fee – but this is only available to customers completing a product transfer.
Elsewhere, cuts were made by lenders Halifax, Gen H and Coventry Building Society as markets started pricing in more Bank of England base rate reductions this year.
Many said all eyes were now on the Bank of England’s next base rate decision on 20 March – though, as we’ve pointed out, uncertainty in global markets caused by Trump tariffs make any downward move appear unlikely.
You can read more about that by clicking our Mortgage Guide below…
Highest fuel prices since September
We also saw the price of fuel hit its highest level since September, with drivers facing five consecutive months of price hikes.
The cost of a litre of unleaded petrol is now 139.65p, rising by 0.65p in February, while diesel went up by 0.73p, according to the RAC.
It now costs around £3 more to fill up a family-sized petrol car than it did in October, at £76.81.
Why are there no bananas?
Despite all of this, one of our most popular reads this week didn’t have anything to do with the economy – and everything to do with bananas.
Shoppers were left disappointed after seeing empty shelves in several Tesco stores, with notes replacing the fruit saying there had been a supply issue.
We’re signing off for the week now – but don’t forget to check out our long read from 8am tomorrow morning.
This week, our cost of living specialist Megan Harwood-Baynes exclusively reveals thousands of British women could be missing significant sums from their pension due to a “common error” made by their employers while on maternity leave.
