A week of record lows for interest rates from one side of the world to the next as the Bank of England cut rates to the lowest in 315 years to 1.5%, in the same week that South Korea reduces its rate to a record low of 2.5%.

Some good news on the high street

JD Sports has bucked the trend over Christmas with their sales up by 2.8% and that it expected its full-year profits to be ahead of forecasts. JD Sports has outperformed the FTSE all-share general retailer’s index by 1% over the last year and in September 2008 the company reported – so it is good to see a company on the high street performing well.

The other companies that fared better included supermarkets like Waitrose where sales were up 41% in the week to 27 December. Sainsbury’s also reported a rise in sales of 4.5% (excluding petrol) from last year for the 13 weeks to 3 January and John Lewis’s sales rose by 27.4% in the week to 3 January – so maybe the interest rate cuts are having a positive effect on consumer spending.

UK manufacturing at a low point

The UK’s manufacturing output has fallen to its lowest level for 27 years which shows just how difficult things are right now for the UK economy. The output has fallen by 7.4% year-on-year which is the biggest fall since June 1981. This was reported in the same week as Nissan announces the loss of 1,200 jobs in Sunderland due to the slow down – Nissan’s Sunderland factory was once hailed as the future of British manufacturing.

Record job losses in the US

Job losses within one year in the USA were the worst they have been since the time of World War II with employers axing a staggering 2.6 million posts in 2008, with over half a million of those in December 2008! This level of losses in US jobs puts the percentage of unemployment up to 7.2%! A similar situation is growing in Spain with unemployment hitting a 12-year high in 2008 of 3 million with one million of those unemployed being added to the jobless list in 2008 alone!

A bizarre twist on the car sales front

Car Manufacturer BMW has seen the sale of its Mini brand rise by 4.3% in 2008, whilst the sale of BMW cars has fallen by 4.3%. However, what is strange in an economic slowdown is that sales of Rolls Royce’s is up, with sales of the Rolls Royce Marque increasing to 1,212 in 2008 (2007 1,010).

End of the week saw:
Stock exchanges:
FTSE 100: 4,449
DOW: 8,599
S&P: 890.35
Nikkei: 8,837

Currencies
UK Sterling £ to US Dollar $ 1.52339
UK Sterling £ to Euro € 1.13428
UK Sterling £ to Japanese Yen 137.425
UK Sterling £ to Aus $ 2.15682
US Dollar $ to Euro € 0.744575
US Dollar $ to Japanese Yen 90.2100

Commodities
Nymex Crude oil – $40.39
Gold – $854.50