Leaders Take to the Stage

This week saw world leaders take center stage from addressing nations to bidding farewell.

US President Barack Obama addressed the American people in his State of the Union address where he outlined plans to address taxation and climate change. At one point President Obama had an encounter with a cheeky Republican response to one of his statements but quickly cut them down to size with a witty retort while on the other side of the world Pope Francis ended his 5 day tour of the Philippines after huge crowds had gathered to hear him speak in Manila.
 
On the monetary front leaders met in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum with plenty on the agenda to discuss. Ukrainian leaders requested funding from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to turn around the war-torn economy while Russian President Putin was under strain when it was revealed that lending to Russian banks had dropped by over £7 billion.

The week ended with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia passing away at the age of 90 and his brother taking over his role resulting in the price of oil futures jumping 3pc while in Argentina President Cristina Kirchner found herself under the spot light after the death of the lead prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre which resulted in protests demanding an investigation. Previously President Kirchner has suggested it was suicide but has since backtracked on the statement.

Santa's Naughty Spreadsheet

It was a short week in the business world with Christmas bringing Santa and his naughty list to town.

As the price of oil drops there has been a major impact on many of the large oil producers including Saudi Arabia which saw an increase in the budget deficit. But it was Russia which took the biggest knock thanks to the oil price and the impact of sanctions with it's currency the Rouble suffering initially only to stabilize and see inflation rise dramatically.

On the tax front Israel's Bank Leumi settled it's US tax charges and paid $400million along with handing over the details of it's clients but it was the Mississippi physician who was sentenced to 6 years after trying to scam the IRS by funneling his earning through a church that gets the biggest lump of coal.

After recent hacks there is the possibility of a sale of Sony studios along with it's Music Publishing Division and, speaking of dirty laundry, Uber has now been charged by South Korea for violating transportation law, just add that to the list of other legal action it's facing.

Finally, Target is facing a lawsuit from angry customers after the hacking incident last year while TripAdvisor has been fined $600,000 for false reviews by Italy's antitrust authority.

Business Battered and Bruised

It's been a relaxed week on the markets with a few big movers announcing results but with most attention on states and their business interests.

State of Business

With the recent downing of Flight MH17 the total liability of the crash could reportedly reach $1 billion, add to that the second major blow to it's brand, can Malaysian Airs survive? In related Ukrainian news Russia are having trouble selling bonds after their Ukraine adventure prompted the cancellation of the bond auction.

More nations are having a hard time with Argentina asking a US judge to put the debt payment order on hold while Puerto Rico's debt crisis could be heading for a US style bankruptcy resolution. South Korea announced a new stimulus plan to help the economy after the Ferry disaster earlier in the year slowed economic growth. In the Eurozone public debt spiked reversing the down trend when the economic crisis eased. The IMF has cut the global growth outlook taking into account weakness in both the US and China.

Saudi Arabia seems to be the only glimmer of hope as it announced it had opened it's $531 billion stock market to foreign investors for the first time.

Business Battered

A widow of a chain smoker has been awarded $23billion in damages against the second largest cigarette maker in the US, RJ Reynolds.

McDonald's didn't have a great week when it was revealed there was an issue with a supplier of meat to McDonalds in China resulting in certain items being pulled from menu's. McDonald's hasn't had much luck in Europe either with it's German profits taking a knock and the Russian consumer protection agency seeking to ban some of it's burgers and milk shakes.

Barclays employee's have said they were concerned about the "Dark Pools" before the suit was filed by the SEC. Barclays has since filed to have the suit dismissed but the SEC have instead stepped up the inverstigation.

The takeover of Time Warner by Rupert Murdocks News Corp has been bumpy with Time Warner preventing shareholders from calling meetings and as interest grows shares of Time Warner could reach $105 a share.

Technology Titans

Facebook showed critics when it's reported  profit's more than doubled thanks to mobile ads resulting in the stock going on to hit a record high and pocketing founder, Mark Zuckerberg, a cool $1.6 billion.

Apple seems pretty certain of it's future reportedly asking it's supplier to produce 80 million large screen iPhones however things weren't all great as it was revealed 18,000 Apple employee's have opened a class action lawsuit against Apple.

More tech Titans made themselves known on the stock market with Alibaba indicating it would wait till after US Labor Day to launch it's much anticipated IPO. However things weren't great for many others with Microsoft's fourth quarter earnings taking a hit after it's acquisition of Nokia and finally Amazon didn't fare to well either when it posted a $126 million loss.