THE US Federal Reserve announced another cut in US interest rates this week in a continuing attempt to halt the global downturn.

It revealed a further cut of 0.25 per cent, the seventh reduction this year, taking the cost of borrowing down to 3.5 per cent, the lowest level since 1994.

It also hinted that there could indeed be further cuts if it felt it was necessary. However, there was little reaction on the US markets as the cut was widely expected, and they actually finished well into negative territory by the end of the session.

The UK markets have seen a modest rise through the week but nothing to get excited about.

There is still plenty of bad news out there and companies are continuing to announce job cuts in an attempt to reduce costs in the current economic slowdown.

Baltimore Technologies, the collapsed Internet security specialist, announced 220 more job losses, resulting in a reduction of more than half the workforce since last June, to about 470 workers from 1,177. The company hopes to save about £70 million through this, along with the sell-off of various assets and is also planning to delist from the Nasdaq stock market in the US.

Baltimore, which was a previous technology favourite among private investors, hit the dizzy heights of around £14 in the technology boom but is now priced at a mere 24p following the collapse of technology stocks and there have been fears for its survival.

It released figures this week, showing a rise of 53 per cent in total revenues to £39.4 million but massive pre-tax losses of £550.3 million. The company is to focus on security products for e-business in a bid to win a major share of a market forecast to be worth £4 billion by 2004 and is aiming to be profitable by this time next year.