The warning was in part driven by weakened consumer spending, although comparisons to the strong previous year have also played a part. Over at BHP Billiton, the company is on course to benefit from surging commodity prices for oil and base metals – but also to suffer from US dollar weakness. JP Morgan is currently estimating a $200m (£106m) impact.The news flow does not dry up outside the UK, however. On mainland Europe, results are expected from cosmetics giant L’Or?, German pharmaceutical firm Merck, Danish brewer Carlsberg and French oil group Total. Sanofi-Synthelabo, the drugs firm fighting for control of rival Aventis, announces fourth-quarter earnings.Finally, squeezed in among those results, the City’s plate will be brimming with some crucial economic updates, including the RICS house price survey, inflation data, minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee and retail sales..

Some say that if it wasn’t for the flabbergasting success of Norah Jones, an artist like new Brit sensation Amy Winehouse couldn’t exist. Jones has unlocked new horizons of subtle, soulful and sophisticated music, harking back to the classic heritage of jazz yet modern and broad-minded enough to embrace pop, country and hip-hop. But while she’s providing a welcome refuge for listeners horrified by nu-metal and driven to apathy by prefab pop, there isn’t quite enough devil in Ms Jones for anybody who wants their jazz to be risky and cutting-edge. At this week’s Brit Awards, Winehouse has been nominated for Best Female Solo Artist and British Urban Act, and judging by the buzz from audiences and critics, she may be well worth a punt.

Winehouse herself is typically brassy and pragmatic about her chances. “Dido’s gonna win even though she’s rubbish,” she snorts, blithely consigning Britain’s queen of poetical interior-designer pop to the shredder.It is Winehouse’s startling bluntness and willingness to speak her mind on any topic – sex, the record business (“they’re idiots”), clothes, drugs, her parents, plastic surgery, whatever – that sets her apart from the demure pop pack. They also account for the kick in her debut album, the aptly named Frank. If you mixed out Winehouse’s voice and lyrics, you’d have a bunch of tuneful tracks with unusual chord progressions, an underpinning of hip-hop and smart instrumental arrangements played by some expert jazzers. Add the chanteuse herself, however, and the brew becomes a caustic, often hilarious survey of urban living and messy relationships.Or, apparently, mostly just one relationship, involving a hapless ex-boyfriend (“a big pussy”) who is condemned to keep hearing this stuff pouring out of the radio. Her debut single, “Stronger Than Me”, spelt out the hurdles that Winehouse expects a bloke to clear if he expects her to stick around.