Around 1,400 jobs were at risk at budget clothing firm Mark One today after it was put into administration for the second time this year.

Car giant Honda is to halt production at its UK plant for two months next year in the wake of the "dramatic change" in the global market, the firm announced today.

House prices are plummeting, credit markets have become frozen, business and consumer confidence are collapsing, the auto industry is at a standstill, and the stock market is off more than 50 per cent.

The Treasury is in an even bigger bind than we realised. We will get the tax stimulus on Monday with the pre-Budget report, but meanwhile the underlying gap between revenues and spending has widened still further. And this is before the downturn has really struck.

On a day of nothing but pain for the markets in London, traders were feeling anxious and self-reflective. As the life insurers, miners and oil firms sent the blue chips sprawling, those on the floor were more preoccupied over where the job cuts were going to hit next.