Jim Armitage: Reuters' staff are soon to suffer the storm's wrath

Outlook Sad news filtering out from the venerable Reuters media group last night: 150 job cuts coming soon to the UK and European offices.

Rumours of the axe emerged just hours after the self-same Thomson Reuters' market research arm reported that global investment banking fees in the last quarter slowed to their lowest levels for more than four years.

Companies do deals when the economy is good, paying bankers for their advice. So, fees to the likes of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are an accurate barometer of the mood. Right now, as Reuters' staff, many of whom work in areas reliant on income from the financial sector, can tell you, the barometer's needle is stuck firmly on "Stormy."