Business Across the Globe

This weeks business blog looks to the East where we saw a decision made in China impacting the rest of the world and other big moves impacting global finances.

The East

China decided this week to devalue their currency, the Yuan, by nearly 2% against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday hammering international markets. China's move came after an 8.3% fall in export in July in an attempt to boost exports and compete with regional rivals with lower currencies like South Korea and Japan.

The West

This week we also learned that tech giant Google had a new parent company called Alphabet to house their various companies. We also saw a crack down on an insider trading scam where hackers accessed company press releases ahead of time giving them an unfair advantage and proving that knowledge is power. (www.15minutenews.com) Lastly this week Uber's Hong Kong offices were raided creating another speed bump for the fast growing company.

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.

Technology Breaking Records & Banks Breaking Rules

This week saw Alibaba file it's long awaited IPO bringing China to the technology forefront. Along with that we have the usual banks behaving badly and technology start-ups shaking things up.

Technology Titans

Alibaba filled it's IPO with a $1 billion fundraising target with more to come later. Alibaba's IPO could be the largest technology IPO in history topping Facebook's debut and has been making ripples across Silicon Valley due to Alibaba's immense reach and scale.

Yahoo, which holds 24% of Alibaba, traded 1% higher after Alibaba's began trading. Yahoo managed to amend it's deal to keep more shares with the original deal requiring Yahoo to sell a specified amount of shares when the IPO was launched.

In other technology stock news Apple's shares topped $600 for the first time in 18 months. Apple is now also the second largest online retailer after Amazon.

Banks behaving badly, again

US Attorney General Eric Holder has warned that no bank is "above the law" amid investigations into tax evasion and money laundering. Credit Suisse Group AG is in talks with the US Justice Department to resolve a tax probe which could cost as much as $1.6 billion.

Banks are also being sued on allegations of fixing the gold price. The suits, filed by hedge funds, private citizens and public investors claim the banks used their position to rig the price of gold to the banks benefit.

Start-ups shaking things up

Airbnb has been under governments scrutiny lately with regulators questioning whether Airbnb hosts paid the relevant taxes and in some cases claim they may be violating New York housing laws.

Ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft have hit a snag with insurers insisting drivers pay commercial insurance to ensure passengers are protected.

Public Relations 101

When teenagers are the voice of reason you know you have to rethink your approach. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have removed a controversial ingredient from their products after a teenager started a petition online.

Target CEO has resigned after continued fallout from when hackers stole credit cards from 70 million accounts over 5 months ago.