When China's heavily hyped and widely marketed track star Liu Xiang limped away from the starting blocks earlier this week, his legions of fans weren't the only ones let down.

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The Dow Jones Retail Index has dropped just over 6% from its highs, although starting with Black Friday this week, this is a sector that typically does well into the end of the year.

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He lost his place in the Milan starting XI when Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho joined last summer, and with Antonio Cassano having signed from Sampdoria this week, there is no space for him in Allegri's line-up.

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And as we're seeing from retail figures this week, people focus their spending power more on what they need, starting with food.

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