CONTRARY to the adage, the devil is actually in the retail. Certainly now, with the high street facing the toughest trading since the 1990-1 recession.
Profit warnings have become equivalent to multi-purchases. It is as difficult to keep up with the next struggling retailer as to remember everything you have bought on a post-Christmas sales shopping spree while still in the after-blow of a hangover.
Well-known names have been almost queuing up to go into administration (some to come straight back out the revolving viability door again via the controversial pre-packaging liquidation-feint).
But, after a plethora of festive trading updates from the high street, a not entirely surprising theme is emerging as to who are the winners and losers in the pivotal period of the year for many retailers.
As the Christmas cobwebs are blown away, it is clear food, drink and budget clothing have been high street pacesetters in terms of sales.
Unemployment fears or not, it seems the potentially condemned consumer decided he or she deserved a hearty literal and metaphorical meal before they might "go" in the baleful New Year.
Hence the strong performances under the tinsel of the likes of Sainsbury and Waitrose (with Tesco expected to continue the trend when it reports its recent trading next week).
The keen awareness of price in the cold economic conditions also explains the solid performance from "value" clothing chains like Peacocks and New Look. With figures due out next week, it would be strange if Primark had also not done well.
Restaurants and caterers are notoriously early into a recession and late out, as my Scotsman colleague Stephen McGinty underlined earlier this week with his survey of the bleak conditions facing the industry north of the Border.
That has opened the way for retailers specialising in cheaper eating options to also prosper through the Yuletide.
As a result, the likes of Dominos Pizza and bakery chain Greggs, did well, posting sales rises of 8 and 5 per cent respectively.
And the festive "losers"? Retailers specialising in big-ticket items like furniture, white goods, carpets, curtains and the like.
In troubled economic times, such discretionary buys – you don't eat the carpet unless exceptionally agitated – are considered ripe for deferral.
That has been reflected in some of the lacklustre figures from the likes of Debenhams and House of Fraser.
Carpetright put out a profit warning a week or so before Christmas after revealing like-for-like sales fell 13 per cent in the first six months of the year. Meanwhile, clothing retailers whose general image is for medium-to-upmarket pricing were hit significantly.
That includes the likes of Marks & Spencer and Next.
And looking ahead? The high street misery and Darwinism is likely to continue.
The main debate among economists is whether the downturn will last just for most of 2009 or 2010 as well.
Personally, I think summer 2010 is the earliest we can hope for any noticeable upturn in the economy generally, although we may well see the odd shaft of sunshine before then.
And, in that context, retailing is likely to remain bleak as well.
FOR sure, the brass plate-and-20-per-cent-performance-fee boys certainly caught a cold in 2008.
The hedge fund lights are dimming all over Mayfair.
It proved the industry's worst-ever year, with the average fund losing just under 19 per cent, according to data from hedge fund consulting firm Hennessee Group.
Hennessee says that there was a 0.76 per cent rise in the average hedge fund performance in December – scant consolation for the poor annual result.
Especially galling for an even more ego-driven slice of the financial sector than usual, conventional wisdom is that hedge funds are supposed to do better in times of volatility.
They didn't. Showing just what a shock to the system 2008 must have been for the funds, the previous worst industry performance was back in 2002.
In that year the average hedge fund lost a shade under 3 per cent.
Maybe proliferation is the problem. Back in the early Noughties there were estimated to be about 5,000 hedge funds. Now there thought to be more than 9,000.
Last year it was definitely not a case of the more the merrier.
