For the second month in a row sales on UK High Streets have fallen, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Like-for-like sales fell by 1.5% in April compared to the same month in 2007. Total sales, which include shops that were not running last year rose by 1.0% last month.

The BRC's figures only take into account the value of sales from a selection of retailers. It is the first time that the BRC's figures had fallen for two consecutive months in a row since the first quarter of 2005.

Europe’s biggest bank HSBC announced that it has written off $3.2bn (£1.6bn) in the first quarter of 2008, as a result of the US sub-prime market.

The write offs are lower than the final quarter of 2007 and are in line with HSBC’s predictions. It is also reported that a further $2.6bn is to be written off in its global banking sector.

The bank has stated that profits in the US had fallen this year but profits in other markets had remained sturdy. This latest writedown has taken the total amount of bad debts sustained by the bank to $14.6bn in the US during the last year.

The dollar fell largely on Friday as stuttering stock markets and a record high oil prices weighed on the U.S. currency, while weakening risk demand improved the low-yielding yen.

The euro added to gains made in the previous session after the European Central Bank said that inflation remained their top concern, signalling that the bank has no intentions of cutting interest rates soon. The euro recovered after falling to a two-month low against the Dollar.

In the United States commercial bankruptcy has jumped 56% in April compared with the same time last year, a report has shown. Businesses filing for bankruptcy rose to 5,173, while the total including those who file for individual bankruptcy rose to 93,096.

Tropicana Entertainment, which owns numerous casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, has become the latest firm to file for protection against bankruptcy. Known as Chapter 11, this allows the company to reorganise and to plan strategies to keep the business running and pay creditors over a period of time.

Analysts say that a deal for Countrywide Financial to sell itself to the Bank of America could be at risk. The mortgage lender, which is the third largest in the US, last week announced a loss of $893m in the first three months of 2008, adding to speculation that the Bank of America could renegotiate of walk away from a deal altogether.

In a statement the bank made clear that the deal was still on by saying that the $4bn transaction was “on track to close as agreed”.

Oil firms Shell and BP have announced combined first-quarter profits of over 7bn. Shell made a profit of £3.9bn and rival BP made a staggering £3.31bn in the first three months of the year. The quarterly profits come amidst global concern over the price of petrol.

In the UK the average price is now 109.8p a litre for petrol, which is equivalent to nearly £5 a gallon (4.55 litres) according to the AA. In the US, where fuel taxes are much lower the average price is $3.60 (£1.80) for an American gallon (3.79 litres).

Alistair darling yesterday urged mortgage lenders to cut the cost of home loans, as policy makers voice concerns about the housing market. The housing market has slowed over the past few months after years of double-digit growth and lenders, hit by the credit crunch have curbed new lending.

In a joint statement by lenders, they agreed that the Bank of England’s plan to allow banks to swap hard-to-shift mortgage assets for government debt would ease economic pressures and allow them to offer cheaper loans.

Tesco has announced an annual profit of £2.846bn, an 11.8% increase for 2007. Although Tesco admit prices had risen by around 1.5% across the board, the increase on food prices masked price cuts on non-food items.

Tesco has stood strong as the UK high street has suffered as households have been hit by higher mortgage costs, fuel prices and food bills.

The head of the World Bank Robert Zoellick has said that the rapid rise in food prices could potentially push over 100 million people further into poverty. This warning follows a statement from The International Monetary Fund which said that hundreds of thousands of people were at risk from starvation.

Food prices have risen sharply over the past 6 months due to poor weather in some countries coupled with bigger demand and an increase in land being used to grow crops for transport fuels.

Barclays capital has launched three indices for tracking foreign exchange unpredictability. They hope the products will provide both varied long-term investment and protection against market downturns in the short term.

Each of the indices have been designed to be used in a variety of structures and investment purposes, and it will be possible to generate tracker funds for investors as well as underlying for structured products.