With stock markets tumbling hard and fast last week and the Fed slashing 0.5% off rates, there is clear concern that this isn't just any old correction, so what can investors do?

The FTSE 100 held onto modest gains after the Chancellor admitted the economy would slightly contract in 2012.

The funds will be used largely to upgrade and maintain existing roads to help tackle congestion and reduce bottle necks.

Today’s Autumn Statement has brought the anticipated bad news for travellers, with the Chancellor unveiling the expected rise in the controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD).

The move would open up options for investors who are currently limited on which AIM stocks they can include, allowing them to hunt returns among small high growth firms.

Tory MPs had threatened to rebel against the government if George Osborne had gone ahead with his New Year tax hike on petrol and diesel.

The tax-free allowance for pensions will be cut from £1.5million to £1.25million over a lifetime and from £50,000 to £40,000 annually - raising an extra £1billion.

The Chancellor provoked a backlash after saying that headteachers should be able to pay teachers more if they perform better in the job than colleagues.

The Chancellor was forced to admit in the Commons that the economy will SHRINK by 0.1 per cent this year, forcing him to announced the Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted the economy will shrink this year by 0.1 per cent, down from the 0.8 per cent growth forecast just nine months ago.

A Gas Generation Strategy published alongside the Autumn Statement confirmed the establishment of an Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility admitted it expects a £400million shortfall in the Government's coffers, after predicting the bank levy would raise £2.2billion in March's Budget.

The scheme will focus on s road improvements, housing and local infrastructure, regional growth and business, science, and schools and colleges.

Motorists celebrated after months of lobbying by campaigners as George Osborne told MPs he was axing the planned January rise.

Labour frontbenchers mocked Nick Clegg, pictured, and his Lib Dem colleagues as George Osborne dashed their hopes of introducing a 'mansion tax' in his Autumn Statement.

The Treasury watchdog was forced on Wednesday to defend its reputation after it again downgraded its forecasts for the British economy and the public finances.

The Shadow Chancellor - who dressed as Santa for the Westminster Kids Club Christmas party - was jeered in the Commons after declaring that the deficit was coming down before changing his mind.

Where was the BBC’s Daily Politics presenter, Andrew Neil, on Budget Day? Apparently the Budget is viewed as a state occasion by the BBC. And thus the exclusive preserve of Edwards.

Knowing exactly what has unlocked Britain’s recovery is hard to determine. But the elements have been in place for some time.

The Chancellor told the Cabinet they must reduce spending every year for the next three years, as he prepared to set out a highly-political statement to the Commons.

Anyone currently in their 40s or younger would be affected by the move, which will see the state pension age rise as the average person lives longer.

Experts had claimed that the lifetime limit could be capped at £100,000 – a figure that seasoned savers may have already reached - but that has not transpired.

The Chancellor unveiled a raft of upbeat data pointing to the recovery gaining momentum, with record numbers in work, borrowing falling and house prices forecast to soar by 5.2 per cent next year.

In a blow for the Chancellor who used the Autumn Statement to unveil a raft of populist giveaways, 60 per cent thought it was good for ‘rich people’.

Call for a freelancer limited company structure to be set up within the tax system and for training for a new career to be tax deductable.

Households up and down the country are hoping Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will come up with a couple of ‘surprise’ announcements.

The purchasing managers’ index of activity in the UK construction sector dipped from 61.4 in October to 59.4 in November, which is still well above the 50 mark that divides growth and decline.

The annual deficit has fallen from the record £153bn racked up by Labour in 2009-10 to £97.5bn last year, but progress has now all but stalled as tax receipts disappoint.

Annuities which come with death benefits can be passed to loved ones tax-free if you die aged under 75, the Chancellor announced in the Autumn statement.

The Deputy Prime Minister spurned the chance to hear the Chancellor's statement in person and instead headed to Cornwall to announce funding for coastal defences.

The big omissions from a Budget or an Autumn Statement are always revealing. It used to be help for savers. This week the missing element was the squeezed middle. Not households, but firms.

As analysts digested the detail of the Chancellor’s ‘mini-Budget’ the ramifications of reforms to stamp duty, business rates and the North Sea tax regime became clearer…

IPSE, a body that represents the self-employed, believes the Chancellor could limit contracts to just a month for freelancers, after which they would be forced on to the client’s payroll.

The Chancellor has pledged to eliminate the record deficit racked up by Labour during the financial crisis and return the country to the black by the end of the decade.

Chancellor George Osborne will use tomorrow’s spending review to announce that the Health Service will receive an extra £6billion straight away – rising to £10billion a year by 2020.

Changes sparked a backlash as they were forecast by the Insitute of Fiscal Studies to take £1,000 a year off 3 million families. They have now been halted altogether.

Anyone with a household income of less than £80,000 in England will soon be able to buy a home through shared ownership, which has long been restricted to key workers.

UK Sport has been handed a shock 29 per cent increase in funding, handing a boost to British athletes preparing for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo four years later.

We bring you the latest the analysis, reaction and charts from the experts and our own journalists from throughout the day.

George Osborne says household energy bills will fall by an average of £30 by 2017 as a result of reducing green levies, as outlined in his Autumn Statement this afternoon.

Public funding - known as Short Money - given to opposition parties to prepare to become an alternative government is to be slashed by 19 per cent, in line with Whitehall departments.

To raise £18billion in spending cuts over the five years, George Osborne slashed departments by up to 37 per cent but the NHS, defence and international development are the big winners.

Draconian rises signalled by the Chancellor will see the average bill for a Band D household rise up to £320 by 2020/21. George Osborne urged town halls to impose increase to fund social care shortfalls.

He has repeatedly slashed domestic spending, but the Chancellor remains committed to funnelling 0.7 per cent of Britain's GDP into an array of dubious overseas aid projects.

The National Audit Office (NAO) warns today that the health service’s ‘endemic’ financial problems have left it so short of cash that it is having to raid building projects to pay for day-to-day services.

While the OBR's chairman Robert Chote admitted there is a 50 per cent chance that the forecast is 'too gloomy', he is standing by his forecast saying predictions were made based on existing trends.

Until yesterday, Chancellor Philip Hammond was among the most dismal of doom-mongers. But as he delivered his Autumn Statement, he seemed transformed.

The new Chancellor Philip Hammond forecasts that Britain’s economy will continue to grow and create new jobs in every year to the end of this Parliament, says ALEX BRUMMER.

Social care for older people is the responsibility of local councils across Britain, and its leaders say that savage cuts have already had to be made due to lower funding from Whitehall.

Philip Hammond said UK output would grow faster than in most EU countries, creating half a million jobs. He vowed to spend billions to boost productivity, build homes and improve transport.

The Chancellor said the government was treating the estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as a 'signal' of what might happen.