Baby's bibs on display at a Mothercare store in London. The retailer opened the year with a grim trading update Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Employees of the Royal Bank of Scotland move at the company headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland. RBS announced that it would be paying out bonuses of £950m to its bankers – at the same time as announcing losses of £1.1bn Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Thomas Cook planes parked at Munich airport. The travel company said that demand for foreign holidays had plummeted Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
The production line at Honda's Swindon plant, where the number of cars being produced was halved as a knock-on effect of the Japanese disaster Photograph: Matt Faber/PA
Former hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam leaving court after he was convicted on all counts of fraud and conspiracy, in Wall Street's biggest insider trading trial for years Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
A crisis at troubled care home provider Southern Cross deepened after it slashed rent payments in an attempt to sustain its 750 residential homes Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
TJ Hughes shop in Crawley, Sussex. Research showed that high street shops were closing at a rate of 20 a day
Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein announced he was hiring top criminal lawyer Reid Weingarten to help fight claims that the bank misled clients and Congress Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP
Shoppers converge in their tens of thousands after the opening of the Westfield shopping centre, on the edge of the Olympic site in east London
Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
A shrine to Steve Jobs at the Beijing Apple store. The company saw its shares slump by more than 5% following his death
Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian
Comet electrical store in Croydon, south London. Its former owner Kesa forked out £50m to help the sale of the retailer Photograph: Jonathan Warner/Comet
It was announced that Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, was suffering from fatigue and would be returning to work in the new year Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images
