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Primark
Peg-leg trousers may sound like the kind of garment you'd only see on a pirate, but in fact they are this season's "must-have" trouser shape. Knocked out for £10 a pair, they have helped Primark keep on track in the face of a high street correction.
Unlike M&S, Primark had profit growth to boast about today- up 17% in the past year to £233m. Underlying sales were 4%.
In these downtrodden times fashion spies say Primark has come up trumps with peg-legs and a bog standard black work trousers for a fiver. Fast fashion shows no sign of running out of steam and Primark will only make life harder for the high street supertanker Sir Stuart Rose is trying to turn round.
Nokia
The press release spoke of change and renewal, but for up to 600 Nokia workers around the world the message was stark: your job is being axed.
The mobile phone giant is cutting hundreds of positions in sales and marketing as the slowdown bites, and also reducing numbers in its long-term R&D arm. The Finnish firm hopes to find alternative work for as many people affected as possible.
"Today's changes are part of Nokia's constant renewal where it is important to be close to our customers and ensure that our people are able to focus on the key business priorities," said Juha Akras, senior vice-president of human resources.
Nokia is still weathering the turmoil better than Motorola, which last week said it would lay off around 3,000 workers.
Chipmakers
Motorola and Nokia's woes are just one part of a wider malaise in the tech sector. Next year is going to be tough for the whole chip sector, according to research group Gartner. It has slashed $25bn off its prediction for the worldwide electronic semiconductor market in 2009 because of the economic crisis. Rather than growing by over 7%, the sector will struggle to record much meaningful growth at all.
Bad news for chip giants like Intel and AMD, and as well as smaller rivals like the UK's Wolfson and CSR.
The problem is that demand for mobile phones, digital music players and computers is tailing off as consumers cut back.
"Semiconductor growth was surprisingly strong until recently, given the very weak economic environment, but this will start to change in the fourth quarter of 2008," warned Bryan Lewis, research vice president at Gartner.
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