Jack Ma is ruling Alibaba with $18.5 billion this year, Buffett, Gates and other are also making billions

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba (BABA, Tech30), made more that anyone this year, increasing his wealth by 173%. There was a gain of $18.5 billion from the research firm Wealth-X.

Ma opened the Chinese online marketplace with $60,000. Now the total worth of Ma is$29.2 billion. He got his treasure pot in September. That month was connected to the biggest IPO ever, Alibaba's IPO.

Warren Buffett is second on the list, whose investing netted $13.5 billion up to now in 2014. It's 23% of gain. He now has a net worth of $72.6 billion.

Bill Gates is third on the list. With $83.1 billion, the world's richest man has made $10.5 billion this year. Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) has even got investment of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) and other investors.

Facebook (FB, Tech30) founder Mark Zuckerberg made $8.4 billion.

Swiss telecom magnate Patrick Drahi with a $5.1 billion gain.

Instagram with the potential to change the world.

Intagram has become more powerful now with more than 300 million users. CEO Kevin Systromm, CEO of the company said that it is exciting and also claimed that the compnay would not stop to grow. Twitter has 284 million users using it's network each month. Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012 and Facebook has 1.35 billion monthly active users.
 Newsbeat ahead of the announcement, Kevin Systrom said: "Instagram is about seeing a live pulse of the world right now, it's not just about taking a photo of a cute baby or a cute dog."
"We want to be all about authentic users and you making sure that you know you're following real people not bots, not spam accounts, not fake accounts." Mr Systrom added.

Instagram will also introduce verified accounts that has blue tick symbols used by Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is also deleting fake accounts that does not follow the rules. This may cause decrease in the number of followers of some users.Co-founder of the company provided some clues that the company would soon be adding new event based features too.

The company announced it had reached 100million active monthly users in February 2013. It even introduced advertising.  Sponsored posts allowed brands to reach the app's growing number of users.

"Early on I would review and approve every single ad before it went on," Kevin Systrom said.
"The reason why we're doing this is as a growth engine for Instagram.
"When you get to 300m users it's not cheap to run that service and you need to make sure to be able to hire more people."

It introduced direct messaging to compete with rivals WhatsApp and Snapchat.

"We're absolutely paying attention to the pitfalls companies have faced before and trying our best to avoid them."

AT&T's expansion, future seems promising.

AT&T acquired Iusacell SA and Direct TV this year in order to expand itself into mexico. AT&T has settled for more than $50 billion to buying Mexican wireless carrier Grupo Iusacell SA and DirecTV.
AT&T  is providing it's services in bundle wireless, TV and broadband services south of the U.S. border. The best part is that the Iusacell business AT&T is getting benefits as long as America Movil faces penalties.

Gregorio Tomassi, an analyst at Banco Itau BBA said,“AT&T is in no rush to buy America Movil’s assets in the short term.” He added, “America Movil is seeing the situation is becoming more difficult than they had initially thought.”

AT&T, SoftbankCorp and China Mobile Ltd were originally contacted by American Movil. It was trying yoi sell more than $17.5 billion.AT&T spokes person is not trying to say anything about Korean visit.

AT&T agreed to pay $48.5 billion for DirecTV, including its Latin American business, expanding outside the U.S. for the first time in a decade. It then agreed to buy Iusacell, Mexico’s third-largest wireless carrier, for an equity value of $1.8 billion.

There was AT&T's announcement on Nov 7 to extend their presence in Mexico to improve AT&T.

AT&T was searching for new area to operate and new business. The $176 billion U.S. phone giant has been seeking further expansion to meet increased competition and slowing wireless growth at home. Randall Stephenson, Chief Executive Officer, initially targetted Europe but shifted back to the Americas after Comcast Corp. announced plans to buy Time Warner Cable Inc.

When Mexico signed a telecommunications over haul into law, competion on telecommunication was emphasized. It forces America Movil to cut its fees and share infrastructure with its competitors because it controls seven out of 10 mobile-phone users in the country. Even without legislation, AT&T mus expand to cope with the changes in the environment.

For Stephenson, the timing and structure of America Movil’s breakup isn’t clear yet and that his phone company would be just fine without Slim’s assets.

America Movil is raised by 4.9 percent this year as of yesterday.

Citigroup Sees Growth in Spain

Spain is one among the five biggest sources of income for Citigroup within Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It gets more of its revenue outside its home market in comparison to other U.S. lender. Citigroup Inc. (C) is expecting an increase in it's revenue in Spain by 5% to 10% in 2015. It is aware of fees from managing bond sales and share offerings to drive revenue in Spain.


According to the company's spokes person,“Large market capitalization companies always had access to capital markets, but medium-sized ones and companies with lower than investment grade rating needed access, and this has started to change in recent years.”

He added, “Equities will also have a good year in 2015, mainly through capital increases and accelerated equity offers.”

Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat is working on plans to streamline the bank. The bank is leaving consumer banking in slow growth markets. It's the world's largest lender before the 2008 financial crisis. The bank is pulling out consumer banking from Spain including Japan, Egypt and Hungary. The bank sold all 45 branches, along with its credit card business in June.All together 950 people worked there. Those branches werr sold to Banco Popular Espanol SA (POP) for $296 million.Currently Citigroup now employs 260 people in Spain.

The bank expecting to build its business in Spain as the country recovers from a two-year recession and a sovereign debt crisis that led the government to seek aid from the European Union to recapitalize local lenders.

Country Officer William Van Dyke said,“The dynamics in the Spanish economy are better and we see an opportunity to strengthen and grow our balance sheet in the country.”

Spain is providing a 10-fold profit to Citigroup in comparison to 1990. It has $25 million in assets and increased revenue of 10% to 19% every year for the past seven years. It earned $75 million in fees from investment banking in the year through September in Spain. It has 5.6% market share and has to compete with Morgan Stanley.

The bank has client base of 60 companies. Citigroup arranged Spain's 10-year government bond issue in January and a five-year inflation linker in October.

Apple after Steve Jobs worth $700 billion

Apple (AAPL, Tech30) seems to have flying colors when it comes to the world's most valuable companies. Apple is the king among them. Now, it's worth is $700 billion after its stock hit a record high on November 25,2014. It is $300billion more than the second most valuable company, Exxon Mobile (XOM).

Tim Cook seem to be a terrific CEO and strongly living the dream of Apple' founder, Steve Jobs.
At present Apple is double of Google's (GOOG) worth. His leadership and ability which were doubted, now it seems the CEO's limits are far more than expected.


Apple's shares are up by 50% to be around $150 per share, all time high. This was supported by the introduction of  Apple's iPhone 6 and iWatch and mobile payments platform Apple Pay. Further more investors are easily accepting such high price for the company because of the buybacks and steady dividend payments. But as always, many believe the stock will continue it's historic run.
According to FactSet, three quarters of analysts give Apple a  "buy."

Apple did a 7-for-1 stock split in June, so investors who recall when Apple hit $700 a share in September 2012 can think of the current price as $838.

Within the S&P 500 index, Apple  inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) does not break records for market cap size in terms of valuation. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), at its peak, accounted for almost 5% of the total index value, while International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) accounted for 6% in the 1980s. Currently, Apple has a weighting of less than 4% in the index because the S&P 500 has risen to record levels. In addition to that,Apple currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 18, compared to 72 for Microsoft at its peak. It even underwent stock split. Apple did a 7-for-1 stock split in June, so investors who recall when Apple hit $700 a share in September 2012 can think of the current price as $838.

According to legendary investor Carl Icahn, the stock could be worth $203 a share. That would value it at over $1 trillion. That means it should rise 70% more than from their current price.

Apples's share must rise by 43% from current market price in order to reach that record-breaking milestone.

$4billion fine to Six banks in currency probe

Each day $5 trillion is traded in the global currency market. London has a huge part in it. Forex rate touches various part of economy: outsourcing cost, export price, price of imported goods, company earnings and many investments held by pension funds and others.


HSBC (HSBC),  RBS (RBS), Citibank (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and UBS (UBS) will collectively pay $1.4 billion to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and about £1.1 billion ($1.75 billion) to the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority. UBS will also make a payment in Switzerland.
In total it's $4.33 billion in fines to global regulators to resolve allegations that these six banks attempted to manipulate foreign exchange rates. The British regulator is imposing such huge fines for the first time. It is still investigating possible manipulations at Barclays (BCS). British regulators said 36 banks that operate in the foreign exchange market, including the five fined Wednesday, will be required to participate in a program to change banking culture and ensure management take more responsibility.

According to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Bank of America (BAC), Citibank and JPMorgan Chase will pay a combined penalties. It's been said that it's $950 million in penalties.

CFTC's director of enforcement, Aitan Goelman said,"The market only works if people have confidence that the process of setting these benchmarks is fair, not corrupted by manipulation by some of the biggest banks in the world."

Between 2008 and 2013, traders shared confidential information and worked with their counterparts at other institutions in an effort to fix rates and increase profits. Traders were working for the profit of banks rather than their client. Regulators said they used private online chatrooms to execute deal to shift currency prices in their favor. These traders called themselves "the players", "the 3 musketeers" and the "the A-team." They try to manipulate the so-called 4 p.m. fix, a 60-second snapshot of afternoon trading in London that forms the basis of a widely-used benchmark.

The banks and traders behaved unacceptably and it could go further o investigation. The banks and individual employees might also face criminal charges in both the U.K. and U.S. over attempts to manipulate the rates. The Federal Reserve is also anticipated to be investigating banks' conduct in the currency market.

UBS was also penalized by Swiss regulators. It will pay a total of $800 million. Citibank will pay the second largest total fine at $668 million.

The CFTC said it has fined more than $3.34 billion relating to the manipulation of global benchmarks since June 2012.

Berkshire's earnings takes hit, but Buffett is still surpassing the expectation

Buffett’s personal wealth notched up by about $55 million

Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) had a huge hit on earnings during the third quarter. Even then the earnings were better than anticipated. The investment company took a massive $678 million charge for its investment in Tesco (TESO). Tesco admitted to overstating its profit forecasts.

Berkshire A shares hit a new 52-week high. It crossed the $200,000 mark for this first time this summer and finished regular trading Friday at $214,970 a share. Later it hit $215,925 in intra day trading. On the other hand, Berkshire’s B shares finished the day up slightly at $143.61 and raised few cents higher after the bell. They are worth 1/1500th of their pricier counterparts and they were flat in after-hours trading.


The portfolio of Berkshire is still ahead for the year. It earned $4.6 billion, or $2,811 per Class A share during the third quarter. There was expectation operating earnings of $2,593.85 per Class A share.It's down by 8.6% from the same period last year, that's better than Wall Street 's expectation. Operating profit rose to $4.72 billion, or $2,876 per class A share, from $3.66 billion, or $2,228 a class A share. Revenue rose to $51.2 billion from $46.5 billion. Profits for the first nine months of the year are more better than that of 2013. Next quarter is not expected to go well. Berkshire lost big money late last month on shares of Coca-Cola (KO) and IBM (IBM, Tech30). These companies delivered disappointing earnings.The investment firm took a $1 billion hit on Coke (KO), which fizzled 6% after the company reported earnings that didn't live up to expectations of investors. Worsening the situation, Coke said it doesn't expect a much better 2015.

Berkshire Hathaway's one of the largest investment is Coke. It holds 400 million shares and his son Howard sits on the beverage company's board.

IBM (IBM, Tech30), another top holding, caused Warren Buffett a loss of $1.3 billion as the stock plunged. The company is looking for a revitalization after reporting disappointing earnings and shedding its chip unit at a major loss.  Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway holds over 70 million shares.

Today's Range	142.87  -  143.99		EPS Due Date	3/3/2015 Est
52-Week Range	108.12  -  143.99		EPS % Chg (Last Qtr)	29%
Price % Chg. YTD	21.13%		3 Year EPS Growth Rate	14%
Price % Chg. Last 4 Weeks	4.76%		EPS Est % Chg (Current Yr)	7%
50-Day Avg. Volume	3,784,400		Annual ROE	7.39%
Shares Outstanding	1181.9 Mil		Sales % Chg (Last Qtr)	10%
Float	1170.0 Mil		3-Year Sales Growth Rate	12%
IPO Date	N/A		Debt %	33%
Investment Bank	Salomon Smith Barney		Market Cap	$354.22 Bil
% Mgmt Owns	0.4%		Profit Margin	12.1%
PE Ratio	22		Sector	Misc
Dividend Yield	NONE		Industry Group Rank	77
Alpha	0.03		Industry Group	Diversified Operations
Beta	0.92

Microsoft ends retail sales of Windows 7 and 8

The next version of Windows, called Windows 10, is due to be released in late 2015.

The retail sales of Windows 7 and 8 has been officially stopped by Microsoft. Microsoft is taking this action to attract customers to more recent versions of it's product. The conclusion is made strong by statistics suggesting people are finally moving away from some very old versions of Windows. There  is anticipation of people adopting new version of Windows. The next version of Windows, called Windows 10, is due to be released in late 2015.

This decision might even affect the market share of the company. Even though the straight estimation of users adapting new version seems promising, there's still chance of decrease in over all sales and revenue collection till the operating period.

After Q1 report it railed up and now decision to stop sales of Windows 7 and 8 seems attractive.

Consumers are not able to purchase copies of the Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate versions of Windows 7 from 31 October. Windows 8 is also no longer available. Copies bought in shops or loaded on PCs and laptops are also affected by the change. All the PCs will have Windows 8.1 as default version. It's current version of windows.

There are many PC makers and they have large stocks of older versions of Windows. So, immediate change might not occur in the market. They will be selling PCs with older version of Windows. There's still a way if you want Windows 7. Users will be able to "downgrade" from 8.1 to Windows 7 Professional and very few PC firms have this option.

Microsoft is trying to distance itself from the original form of Windows 8 even though it is released just over two years ago. Windows 8's original version was not able to live up customers expectation as it lacked some familiar elemets of the desktop version of the operating system.

Windows 7 has been available since late 2009 and is still very popular among users. About 53% of Windows users are on the various editions of Version 7 of Windows. The more recently released Windows 8 has only grabbed a 6% market share and has already been surpassed by 8.1.

Data from Netmarketshare suggests that in October this year users using Windows XP dropped from almost 24% to just over 17%. It is not yet clear what was behind the fall.

U.S. stocks fall as Fed ends 6-year effort to stimulate economy, Facebook down by 6.1%

The unemployment rate is now 5.9%, its lowest mark since QE began. There are over 8.5 million more people employed now than in November 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Federal Reserve confirmed that it will end it's asset-purchase program due to stable growth path of U.S. economy. It caused stocks decline in U.S.  The decision provides a strong base on how much the economy has improved since the recession. This decision ignited a down rate in U.S. stock market.

Facebook dropped 6.1 percent to $75.86, the most since March. 

Facebook Inc. predicted the slowest revenue growth since the first quarter of 2013 and it lost 6.1 percent after that prediction. Facebook dropped 6.1 percent to $75.86, the most since March. The owner of the largest social-media website projected fourth-quarter sales that missed the highest of analyst estimates. Facebook also said spending would increase 50 percent to 70 percent next year as the company hires more and invests in newer products.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) slipped 0.1 percent to 1,982.30 at 4 p.m. in New York, trimming an earlier slide of 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 31.44 points, or about 0.2 percent, to 16,974.31. About 7.3 million shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges.

"It's in response to the Fed acknowledging the improvement in the economy, the improvement in the labor market and the diminished risks on the inflation side of things," says Greenhaus. Dan Greenhaus is a chief strategist at market research firm BTIG in New York.

S&P 500 down 7.4 percent from an all-time high of 2,011.36 in mid-September through Oct. 15 because of huge concerns that Europe will be going into recession just as Fed bond buying ends. But there is still positive part as well.

60 percent of the S&P 500 companies have surpassed revenue projections and 80% have beaten the estimated earnings.

GlaxoSmithKline's shares rose 4% after its third-quarter results slides it's way beyond expectation and announces to return an additional £4billion to shareholders by a special share scheme. GSK is one of the world's biggest drug manufacturer and now it is on rise. The UK pharmaceuticals giant published a pre-tax profit of £548m till the end of September for three months. It is way more below than £1.4 billion a year ago. Even then,the results beat analyst forecasts.

U.S. Steel (X) advanced 5.1 percent to $40.08. Company reported more than estimated earning with the help of the quadrupling of flat-rolled steel sales.earnings.

Warren Buffett loses $2 billion in two days

IBM and Coke may be losing money, but Buffett's largest position, Wells Fargo, has raised 11% this year. 

Warren Buffett has lost $2 billion this week. Mr Buffett is known for making most likely estimation about established companies rather than investing in riskier stocks. Buffett is known for focusing on the long-term performance of his investments.

Berkshire Hathaway investment house portfolio includes huge parts of  Coke and IBM, both of which have decline in profits in the past two days. The investment firm took a $1 billion hit on Coke (KO), which fizzled 6% on Tuesday after the company reported earnings that didn't live up to expectations of investors. Worsening the situation, Coke said it doesn't expect a much better 2015.

Berkshire Hathaway's one of the lasgest investment is Coke. It holds 400 million shares and his son Howard sits on the beverage company's board.

On Monday,IBM (IBM, Tech30), another top holding, caused Warren Buffett a loss of $1.3 billion as the stock plunged. The company is looking for a revitalization after reporting disappointing earnings and shedding its chip unit at a major loss. The stock dropped 7% on Monday after then news was made public and slid again on Tuesday. It is off nearly 13% so far this year, and Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway holds over 70 million shares.

Buffet has been actively quoted a lot this year for his misses. Berkshire Hathaway's investment on British grocery chain Tesco (TSCDY) has also been a loss, with maximum drop: nearly 47% this year.

On the other hand, there's silver lining and it's more vivid, investors are supporting the company. Berkshire stock climbed slightly on Monday and Tuesday, and is up more than 17% this year.

IBM and Coke may be losing money, but Buffett's largest position, Wells Fargo, has raised 11% this year. And eventhough the market goes down, Buffett is adding more stocks to his portfolio.He said in an interview  "the more stocks go down, the more I like to buy."

CSX-Union Pacific stock trading, which one will outperform other?

CSX has risen 16 percent since March 23,2011

New investors are attracted to CSX as CSX’s coal shipments show signs of stabilizing.The number of coal carloads CSX transports was up 3 percent for the week ended Oct. 4 from same period a year ago after years of contraction.

Since March 23, 2011,CSX has risen 16 percent, compared to Union Pacific’s 119 percent gain. Even though the  stock-price ratio is close to the lowest since 1981, it’s up 0.8 percentage points this month, the biggest increase in a month. The point is whether investors will start putting more capital into this trade now that it’s at a multidecade low.

“Fewer coal-related headwinds have been the overarching driver”said Ben Hartford, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee.

Based on Jacksonville, Florida,CSX is generating 24 percent of total 2013 revenue transporting coal and is more dependent on this commodity while Nebraska-based Union Pacific generates 19 percent.
CSX stock lagged behind Union Pacific because of declining the price of natural gas which made it cheaper alternative for utilities.

Union Pacific hauls primarily Powder River Basin type coal, which is cheaper than CSX’s Appalachian variety, so it's volumes declined less.

 CSX stock could “narrow the gap” with Union Pacific as coal becomes a “less significant headwind” for CSX, Hartford said.

Jim Stellakis, founder and director of research at Technical Alpha Inc. in Greenwich, Connecticut, said that the pair-trade ratio could “move sideways” for a few months before there’s a clear sign that a possible downtrend in place since 2011 has broken. If ratio goes up overcoming a recent high in January 2014 -- “that’s a good sign there’s a switch under way, as investors are starting to see more value in CSX relative to Union Pacific.”

Investors like Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management LLC in New York, does not follow the bet because his company currently hols Union Pacific. CSX has been plagued by congestion on its East Coast rail network, Ghriskey said. The company increased hiring and capital spending to alleviate this. Also that it relies more on the export market for coal, specifically China, where demand has been weak.
Still, the performance gap between these two stocks could reverse, as it has in the past, said Hartford, who maintains a neutral recommendation on Union Pacific and an outperform on CSX.

Driven largely by it's higher margin, CSX outpaced Union Pacific, between 2002 and 2008.
CSX is scheduled to report third-quarter results Oct. 14, followed by Union Pacific on Oct. 23. The implied one-day stock-price move after the announcement is about 3.5 percent for CSX.
Ghriskey said “pair trade is certainly something to watch,” even for investors with a position in only one of these stocks,

S&P 500 index for Asian stock rises.

The dollar held losses and  with the regional index is up from its lowest level since May,Asian stocks has climbed, and bonds rallied with oil and copper on bets monetary policies in the three largest economies will be accommodating.

Chinese shares in Hong Kong raised 1.1 percent following Premier Li Keqiang's announcement to lower financing costs. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) rose 0.8 percent till the morning in Tokyo.  With addition of 0.2 percent in futures in  Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the gauge jumped the most this year on speculation that low rates will be set and global growth will be slowed by Federal Reserve. When Oil in New York rebounded 0.5 percent and copper climbed 0.7 percent, Japan's five-year bond yield fell to the lowest after the central bank's unprecedented easing.

Tesco's share price has fallen nearly 50%, a huge mistake by the Sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett

Tesco's share price has fallen nearly by 50% reducing the value of investment by 50%.

The Sage of Omaha has said that his decision to invest in Tesco is a "huge mistake."
Berkshire Hathaway firm owns a 3.7% stake in Tesco, worth hundreds of millions of dollars and now  the supermarket's sales are declining and in addition to that share price has fallen to an 11-year low this year.
Tesco shocked investors last week by issuing a string of profit warnings. It revealed it had overstated its expected half-year profits by £250m.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Business Committee, Adrian Bailey, has described Tesco's error as "stratospheric".

He told on CNBC,"I made a mistake on Tesco. That was a huge mistake by me."

Mr Buffett is famous for comprehensive ability to understand the performance of a business for long period of time but now it does not seem so. The risk this time in Tesco are high.

Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio consist names like Coca-Cola, IBM and American Express and it started to include Tesco in 2006 and by 2012 owned more than 5% of the business.

What happened next?
The stake had fallen to 3.7% by the end of 2013 , with investment capital of  $1.7bn and continuing the fall since then Tesco's share price has fallen nearly 50%. It has now made the value to investment half of it's original value.

In addition to that Tesco has seen declining sales amid increased competition. The discount retailers like Aldi and Lidl are in the in the market and Marks & Spencer and Waitrose are providing high end offerings to attract customers.

Tesco says  Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been notified it that it is under investigation following its admission last week that it overstated its half-year profit guidance by £250m.
The supermarket giant will co-operate fully with the FCA and other relevant authorities.

The news induced a new fall in Tesco's share price, its lowest for more than 10 years. leaving it down 3% at 180p.

Tesco has itself has  launched its own investigation into the issue.  Deloitte, together with Freshfields, the group's external legal advisers will do the investigation.

Four executives were suspended in connection with accounting problem and there was change in high level management. Chief executive Dave Lewis has only been in the job a month, while chief financial officer Alan Stewart, who was originally due to join the company on 1 December, had his start date brought forward and took up the post last week.

JPMorgan shares rose 1.5 percent to $59.72, but got a massive cyber attack.

JP Morgan is the US's biggest bank and it got a massive cyber attack on 76 million private and seven million business customers in the US. An employee password was used to crack a JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) server and ultimately pull off one of the largest cyber-attacks ever, accessing data on 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. Even though the hacker collected  information and addresses of the account holders, the collected information were not critical.
For Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it had not seen any "unusual customer fraud related to this incident". Home Depot and Target have been the subject of similar wide scale attacks. JP Morgan says customers are not required to take any action, such as changing their passwords or account information.

Its company spokeswoman, Patricia Wexler, said that the bank is not offering credit monitoring to customers either because it does not believe any financial information, account data or personally identifiable information was taken. He added, some of those affected by the incursion were outside the U.S.,  In addition to contact information, hackers tapped into internal data identifying customers by category, such as whether they are clients of the private-bank, mortgage, auto or credit-card divisions.

She further added that all details has not been exposed, so there's no need to take actions by customers.Information on both current and former customers was exposed, as well as on some non-customers, including people who may have logged on to JPMorgan websites to conduct transactions with bank clients. Data were compromised through Chase.com and JPMorganOnline.com, and the mobile apps that support those websites.

JPMorgan shares rose 1.5 percent to $59.72 at 9:56 a.m.(October 3,2014) in New York and have gained about 2.2 percent this year, trailing the 6.1 percent advance for the 85-company Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index.

The U.S. total household is 115 million and  76 million households were affected. Earlier this year, 145 million personal records were taken in a breach of EBay Inc. An attack on retailer Target Corp. during last year’s holiday season affected as many as 110 million shoppers. An attack at Home Depot Inc. disclosed last month compromised 56 million payment cards.

According to the people familiar with the bank’s review the attack at JPMorgan started in June. The hackers entered a web-development server with an employee’s user name and password, then got their access into lender’s network, the people said.

Government officials and security specialists have long warned of the possibility of cyber disruptions in the financial system and other services and utilities. Those concerns are heightened in times of conflict.

Having said that people should themselves be aware about the possible threat and must take actions to stay away from trouble. Changing password often and signing off from devices when you leave the desk will help to increase security.

BP's share highly under performing due to Western sanctions on Russia

Sanctions against Russia is viewed as an obstacle for BP to keep it's business at normal pace. BP just posted a rise in second quarter profits. BP has around a 20% stake in Russian energy giant Rosneft and the sanctions against Russia due the Ukraine crisis can affect BP in future. BP said, "Sanctions could adversely impact our business."

BP is worried about the impact of sanctions and relationship with Rosneft. The crisis may affect the level of income, production and reserves as well as BP's investment and reputation. The company's second quarter profits is $3.2bn (£1.9bn), up from $2.4bn in the same period last year. For the second quarter, BP said higher oil production in higher-margin areas such as the Gulf of Mexico had boosted its profits. But for third quarter, the production is not expected to be high as second quarter due to the seasonal maintenance in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico as well as the planned major turnaround.

BP has around a 20% stake in Russian energy giant Rosneft and the sanctions against Russia due the Ukraine crisis can affect BP in future.

If the sanctions become more intense, there could be prohibition of exports of technologies used in the Russian Oil sector.

BP's share price is affected along with political conflicts as BP is more exposed to political situations in Russia than any of its competitors. Analysts are seeing BP's share hugely under-performing. BP's share price had risen by 2% since early June, while Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron had each increased by more than 9%.

On Tuesday, BP shares were up during early trading, but later fell 1.6% to 489p because of the impact on western sanctions on Russia and it's still going down.

Russia's move to prevent itself from high inflation and low investment.

From 7.5% to 8% now. Russian interest rate has increased.

Russia is acting to prevent their economy from the risk of high inflation. The situation in Russia after sanctions from west and recent tension in Ukraine are viewed as the major factors for the probability of increment in inflation.

Since the European economy is in stress and whole Eurozone has low inflation of 0.5%, Russia is also experiencing the stress and other restrictions too. With raising pressure from the west and it's conflict with Ukraine, Russia is anticipating high rate of inflation and in order to check the  risk of high inflation Russian Central bank decided to raise the interest rate by 50 basis points, or half a percent, to 8% per year. In June, core inflation grew to 7.5%, well above the bank's forecast of up to 6.5% for the year.

Analysts were not expecting such changes in the interest rate. They are aware of the vulnerability of the Russia's economy.After sanctions were implemented domestic stocks and the rouble tumbled earlier this year. Analyst are observing the concern of central bank for the potential impact.
The bank is working to reduced the inflation risk  which are caused due to a combination of factors, including, inter alia, the aggravation of geopolitical tension and its potential impact on the rouble exchange rate dynamics, as well as potential changes in tax and tariff policy. The bank point outs the main reason for inflation acceleration is the effect of the observed rouble depreciation on prices of a wide range of goods and services.

While anxious investors are pulling their money out, the exchange rate might still go down.

The consumer price growth rate increased to 7.8% in June and the bank trying to put down the consumer price growth to 4% with increased interest rate.

Russia is concerned about the money leaving from the country. Analysts view this act as  move to prevent large amount of money to leave the country.With such tension in the reason, investors are still searching for the better reason to invest.

Microsoft after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Satya Nadella

Microsoft is making a history again, it's cutting up 18,000 jobs. This is the highest cut in the company's thirty nine years of history. Most of the cuts will be in a recently bought unit, Nokia. It is estimated that around 12,500 jobs will be cut for the unit. This is being announced with 18 months of closing acquisition. Microsoft pledged to cut $600 million per year in costs.

The firm was expected previously to reduce 6,000 initially and while the actual cut are being announced, it became more sever,18,000 jobs. The firm has 127,000 employees world wide.

While it's reducing the number of employees it's not yet specifying locations yet.

The company  is also changing it's core business focus. The company is a software giant and it's still is. But, new CEO is offering something that might be questioning the trust of the investors. In February Microsoft appointed new CEO Satya Nadella who wants the firm to shift it's focus to online services, apps and devices away from software.
The firm is focusing on efficiency by reducing the chain of command and having fewer layers of management. IBM was weak at to reduce it while competing with the firm during the era of technological warfare.

He wore in an announcement,"Making these decisions to change are difficult, but necessary."

The firm is going to complete the re-size by the end of June next year.  It said the affected staff would be notified over  the next six months.

In total it said the cuts, including severance pay, would cost it between $1.1bn to $1.6bn (£643m to £935m) over the next year. Though it might seem to be costly for the company to cut job this will put the company in more favorable situation in coming years. The company will find itself in position where salary to employee and other expenses are much less than at present.

Analyst are still hopeful about the company's ability to be successful in online world. Satya Nadella is expected to put forward massive changes in the company.

Using it's $7.2 billion acquisition and all other resources, Microsoft is working to be a leading company in mobile devices and cloud based services. Satya Nadella is willing to put productivity and innovation as the focus of the company. It's seems the firm will be working in many innovative ideas to get what's useful for people. It's now focusing on Skype and Cortana.

Mr Nadella recreated image of the firm as "the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world." The company may become leading one, it's time which will show us the result but for now there are people who will have to bear the impact. The cuts are expected to helping Microsoft in the competition with tech giants like Google and Apple.

This has impact on the stock price of the firm. Recently after the news, the stocks were up by 2%. While the world market is being hit by geopolitical unrest, the firms stocks are in increasing trend.

The firm is working to combine three operating systems into one single operating system. Nadella said "this means one operating system that covers all screen sizes." While windows is popular for making versions of the operating system, it's now a bold step for the firm.

Nadella is up with one team and a common architecture to combine Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox.
This could be one of the best step taken by the company to provide universal apps.


Here the analysis of the stock in Nasdaq.

Microsoft is making a history again, it's cutting up 18,000 jobs.This has impact on the stock price of the firm. Recently after the news, the stocks were up by 2%

World Markets affected by geopolitical unrest.

World markets plunged down on Friday after Malaysian Airlines Plane crash. The tension in Ukraine affected markets world wide. It has been said that the Flight MH17 was brought down by a surface-to-air missile over a region where Ukrainian government forces and  pro-Russian rebels are fighting.

As the news of crash spread, Japan's Nikkei tumbled by 1% and Germany's DAX fell 0.35%.


Russia and Germany has close trading ties, and it's been anticipated that Germany might lose more than most from a deepening crisis. After the crash, Moscow is going to experience pressure from the world to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Such political unrest has affected markets around the world.

On the other hand, aviation stocks are falling in Malaysia, it fell by 0.4%. Four months earlier Flight MH370 disappeared, this is the second tragedy to hit the airline business this year.
After the attack, the most actively traded stock in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Airline fell by 11% while Malaysia Airport slide down nearly 5%.


While the tension spread and Russian stocks were also on the slide, extending Thursday's losses triggered by the announcement of new U.S. sanctions targeting leading Russian energy companies and banks on the other hand, the West is trying to pressure Moscow into ending its support for the rebels in Ukraine.


Investors were further thrilled when Israel sent ground troops into Gaza.

On Thursday, US stocks were also seen affected : the S&P 500 declined about 1.2%, the Nasdaq slid 1.4% and the Dow closed down almost 1%, the drop for the Dow was the biggest in two months, and the S&P's fall was the steepest in three months.

While stock markets were falling gold price was up 1.5% higher. The VIX index, which measured market volatility rose up by 36%.


While these events affected world market after the news, Wall Street bounced back Friday.

Google has reported 22% increase in revenue during the second quarter compare to a year earlier. Stocks was up by 1.18% at 580.5

Google has reported 22% increase in revenue during the second quarter period from March through June compare to a year earlier. This increase in revenue is more than the expectation of the investors but the profit is not as expected.

Google reported it's profit was $3.4 billion, which was up by 6% while revenue rose up to $16 billion.
With the reports out the Google shares rose by more than 1% in share market.

Goods advertisement are very popular in internet and many clients are using these advertisement to increase their sales. While Google announced increase in revenue, Google's chief business officer is leaving for SoftBank. Google announced Nikesh Arora was leaving for SoftBank.

Omid Kordestani,  who was Google’s business founder and formerly led Google’s sales team, will be replacing Mr Arora temporarily.

$7billion settlement by Citigroup, Investors seem to be happy with that decision because stock price rose.(3.02%)

The Citigroup fines are said to have surprised stock analysts and people inside the bank, who had hoped to settle for less.Citigroup will pay $7 billion to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis. Following the decision for consumer relief, the bank reported a stronger than predicted quarterly profit, and saw its share price rise by 3.02% to $48.42 (£28.34).


Citigroup's chief executive, Michael L Corbat, said,"We believe that this settlement is in the best interests of our shareholders, and allows us to move forward and to focus on the future, not the past." Investors seem to be happy with that decision because stock price rose.

The bank offered to pay less than $4billion to resolve the  investigation. In reaction to it the justice department warned last month that it would sue the bank for offering less than what government was seeking.

The bank will take a pre-tax charge of about $3.8 billion because of the settlement during its second quarter.

Citigroup said Monday that its net income dropped in the second quarter after the settlement was arranged. That charge pushed down Citigroup's net income to $181 million from $4.18 billion a year earlier.On a per-share basis, net income was 3 cents, compared with $1.34 in the second-quarter a year earlier. Excluding the charges and an accounting gain, the bank's second-quarter profit rose 1 percent to $3.93 billion, or $1.24 a share.

The bank earned $3.89 billion, or $1.25 per share, a year earlier. Revenue was $19.4 billion, excluding the accounting gain, compared with $20 billion a year earlier.

Adeal between the Justice Department and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the nation's biggest bank was similar to this settlement, but it's much larger than this.After months of negotiations, the bank last year agreed to pay $13 billion after an investigation into toxic mortgage-backed securities..