Five John Lewis stores saw sales fall by more than 20% last week as the department store group was hit by heavy discounting by rivals.

The group’s weekly trading update revealed a 23% drop at Nottingham, while stores at Peterborough, Reading, Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway and Peter Jones, London, were also down by more than a fifth on year-on-year sales.

John Lewis disclosed on Sunday that sales across the division were down by more than 13% in the week to last Saturday. The period saw rivals Marks & Spencer and Debenhams hold discount days in a bid to drive footfall in the run up to Christmas.

One of the week’s best sellers was Biscuit the Dog, a life size electronic toy retriever puppy that John Lewis said had sold in record numbers.

Supermarket chain Waitrose, part of the John Lewis Partnership, said sales were down for a second consecutive week by just under 4%.

Meanwhile, a huge sale bonanza is expected at Woolworth’s as administrators look to raise cash from a stock clearance. The fire sale will force other stores to drop prices even more to compete.

Troubled DIY giant B&Q has is closing nine Trade Depot superstores as owner Kingfisher reported a £15 million loss in the last financial year.

The closures are in response to falling sales and heavy losses from stores in China.

Kingfisher is the world’s third largest DIY group. The cash savings will be pumped in to the group’s other B&Q stores and the online Screwfix brand.

Other B&Q stores will swallow 230 jobs at the nine axed stores.

The FTSE closed at up 71 points at 4153 while Wall Street climbed 247 up at 8726. 

The Pound stood its own against the US Dollar ($1.54) and the Euro (0.83p)

---

For More information on specific Banks use these links

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings

Related Websites

• Wal-Mart Reacting to Declines in Same Store Sales (NYSE: WMT) Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT) is reacting to data from...
• The Friday gathering for 5/23/2008 Photo by: Mr.Thomas Today is my wife and I's 16...
• Quick Tricks for Saving Money on Food Expenses Learning to keep food costs under control is a necessity...

Tags: Bargains, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Current Economic Situation, Economic Crisis, FTSE

The stock markets are filled with opportunities right now. The slump in stock prices isn’t a reflection on the underlying companies; it’s a reflection of the need to raise capital and the desire to avoid risk. The tide in the stock markets has well and truly gone out….but it won’t stay out forever.

Take Japans Nikkei index. Today, almost 20 years after Nick Leason worked his magic, the index is still down over 75% from its 1989 high…and share prices have recently fallen to levels that many are calling absurd. The average price of the index in total is slightly UNDER one times book value. This is just a ridiculous state of affairs for one of the most advanced economies in the world. But with the memory of the 1990s rout still fresh in the minds of many Japanese investors, the words “it can’t go any lower” have been banished from the collective consciousness for at least a generation.

They know the painful truth….stock and property prices can fall further than anyone thinks possible in the after math of a bubble…a lot further. Yet, with undoubted fear across many global markets, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to pick up shares at prices not likely to be seen for a generation….and it’s not only in Japan. In emerging markets from Russia to Malaysia to Brazil, valuations are completely out of whack with normality.  The growth stories may have stalled in these economies, but the longer term demographic and developmental trends are still firmly in place.

While the future may not be bright in the stock markets of the western world, soon emerging market economies keep their savings for themselves and invest in their own productive capacity. They will redirect their cash away from the US and other western economies that desperately need it to keep their consumption based economies from total collapse.  Once they do, the west will cease to be a drag on the global economies and the emerging markets will witness a boom never before seen in the global economy. Grab your share, before it’s too late.

Related Websites

• The Stock Market Is Crashing! The market is crashing! The sky is falling! Cats are...
• Why The Dow Jones Is A Joke, But Unfortunately Important "In other news the Dow dropped 1,000 points in an...
• Tips for Investing Online The concept of doing your investing online through the use...

Tags: Bargains, Econonmy, Nikkei, Property Prices, Stock Markets, Stocks and share, World Economy