Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen opened her statement in today’s press conference announcing “no change” to the federal funds rate, despite of a positive outlook on the US economy, based on reported improvements in the labor market, specifically an average of 230,000 new jobs in the last three months, along with growing household spending and positive consumer sentiment.

A positive outlook was announced despite of stalled wage growth, a growing number of part time employees seeking full time employment, weak business investment, downward outlook on GDP, soft net exports and weak global economic conditions.

Economic expansion and growth is expected to continue, pushing towards a 2% inflation target within 2-3 years, as well as a gradual “tightening” of monetary policy towards a target federal funds rate in the range of 3% by 2018, further increasing in the longer run.

However, Yellen goes on to say that despite of the positive outlook and current assessments of appropriate monetary policy, they will remain “accommodative” due to elevated uncertainty and the Fed is prepared to soften policy with the ability to lower interest rates down to zero to offset possible global economic pressure. Further rate increases are said to be determined on a “live” basis as new data is reported and April’s rate considerations are to be considered at that time.

Yellen was asked whether “negative” interest rates have been considered. Yellen responded by saying that it has not been a focus of discussion due to a positive economic outlook.

A downward forecast in global growth was reported, citing downward pressure from the weight of low oil prices in many countries, specifically mentioning our neighbors to the North and South, Canada and Mexico. Japan reported negative growth in the 4th quarter of 2015.

Oil is expected to stabilize due to market decline in drilling. Current consumer spending is said to be aided by current low oil prices, benefiting households by approximately $1,000 in savings per year, although, current spending was said not to be as strong as “could be”. In increase in oil prices was said to have low significance in monetary policy.

Consumer sentiment was observed to be in “solid territory” as households have been helped by low oil and stronger labor market. Yellen stated that almost all demographic groups have seen improved labor market conditions, despite inequalities existing since the 1980’s.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) were expecting a huge traffic on its networks on the day of Christmas.  However, all those expectations went down the drain when the users faced troubles with their networks. According to a report by Reuters, Sony Corporation’s decision to release its much controversial movie, The Interview, also fueled the problem.

When the servers of Microsoft Corporation were down, the users saw a message on their window which asked them as to whether they were having a trouble while signing in to the network. Another message popped up after a while, which said that the company is trying to fix the problem, and that it is thankful for the user’s patience.

According to a status report released by Microsoft, the models of Microsoft Corporation’s Xbox that were affected due to this incident included Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Two hours after the hacking, the message on the server changed and said that the technicians of the company are finding a way to solve the problem.

The status report page of Sony Corporation’s PlayStation was still off at 7:30 in the evening. The message that was appearing in the window said that the company is aware of the troubles that its users are experiencing while logging into the server. It also thanked the users for their patience and said that the technicians would fix the problem as soon as possible so that the users could enjoy their holiday.

Where both the companies were busily trying to fix the problem, the hacker group, on the other hand, was celebrating its success. Lizard Squad updated its Twitter status and wrote that the whole nation is in a chaos and that the group has it on strings.  The hacker group also stated that they would fix the server problem if people would retweet their message.

This incident was similar to another one that occurred a couple of weeks back when the server of PSN went down. The very same group took responsibility for that action as well.

Coming to the stock prices of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), the company, during the last trading session of December 26, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $48.41 and closed at a reduced price of $47.88, after hitting the highest price of $48.41. The company has a total market capitalization of $394.67 billion with a P/E (price to earnings) ratio of 18.76.

The stocks of Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE), on the other hand, were being traded in the range of $21.21 to $21.38.

Sony Pictures released its latest movie, The Interview, on the day of Christmas. The film revolves around a plot where Kin Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, was faced with some assassination attacks. This movie was opened in 300+ cinemas all around the United States. Some of the theatres were booked months ago, whereas others sold out as soon as the day started. The audience seemed happy with the freedom of expression that was allowed by not censoring or banning this movie from release.

The co stars of The Interview, Seth Rogen and James Franco together with Evan Goldberg, the co director of the comedy movie, surprised their fans when they appeared in one of the sold out cinemas of Los Angeles at 12:30 a.m. (0830 GMT). The team thanked the fans for their support. It is important to mention here that this movie is a low budget comedy film, with a total budget plan of $44 million.

Sony Pictures had decided to cancel the release of this movie, after the company became a victim of one of the most threatening and destructive cyber attacks in the history of United States. According to the reports of the Unites State’s agencies, the attack was planned by North Korea. The hackers gave a warning that they would attack audiences and cinemas if this film was released. Following the warning, a number of movie chains refused to open this movie in their theaters.

After the successful release of The Interview, both the fans as well as the managers of the theaters said that they knew there was nothing to worry about.

A resident of Queens’s area of New York, Nick Doiron, who is an engineer by profession, said that he was planning to watch this movie online. However, he decided not to give up to the cyber attacks, and hence, came to watch the movie in the Cinema Village Theater that is located in the Greenwich Village.

The engineer said that the controversy regarding the movie was stupid. He further mentioned that he was following this news very closely and was quite interested in North Korean story. Nick further mentioned that he wanted to be a part of the message that freedom of expression is a fundamental right and that censorship should end.

This movie is available for live streaming in the region of United States.

Coming to the stock prices of Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE), the company saw an increase of 2.21 percent in its shares as soon as the movie successfully released in the cinemas. During the last trading day of December 25, 2014, the company opened its stocks at a price of $21.23 and closed at a price of $21.32, after hitting the highest price of $21.40. The intraday range for the stocks of Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) was recorded to be from $21.22 to $21.40.

As for the market capitalization of Sony, the figures currently stand at $24.5 billion.

No particular details of the case have been disclosed either by the judge or the opposing parties, apart from the fact that the agreement reached is “mutually acceptable”.

Though people all over the world come under trolling attacks on the internet every day, Hegglin’s case was different, as he has been attacked thousands of times on over 4,000 internet websites. The content of the allegations varied drastically, but most of all, Mr. Hegglin was being repeatedly called a pedophile, murderer, as well as a sympathizer of the Ku Klux Klan.

Hegglin came to London to begin his career, and has worked at the investment bank called Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) for over 24 years. He then was forced to move to Hong Kong, due to cases of “extreme internet trolling”, intentional posting of provocative/abusive material on the internet to embarrass or defame a particular person/group.

However, when the cases of internet trolling against him continued still, Hegglin reported them to Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), in order to block access to the content appearing about him on internet websites to curb its spread. But Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) responded in a manner which did not recognize the specialty of the case, and Mr. Hegglin became forced to take Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to the high court. According to Anthony White, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) spokesman, “Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) provides search services to millions of people and cannot be responsible for policing internet content.”

The case holds great importance, because such a scenario is unprecedented in Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s history. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is the most powerful search engine in the world, hence is an information bank which spreads information rapidly all over the internet. The question which has held this court case for so long identifies Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s limited role in this, as Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) claims to only provide a platform to internet websites to display whatever is relevant to users.

However, Mr. Hegglin argues that it is because of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s efficient system of search engine that false information about him is travelling so rapidly, and it is this catalyst he wants to remove. The court case filed by Mr. Hegglin was aimed at this end as well, in that it forced the search engine giant to provide the former with a satisfactory cover to disable any websites, containing false information about him, from appearing in search results.

The case has been misunderstood many times as a ‘right to be forgotten’ scenario, under which Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) allows users to have search results about them wiped off the face of the search engine that is old and/or unpleasant, which people don’t want to be seen on the internet any longer. The ‘right to be forgotten’ option was presented to users in May by Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), after a court ruling deemed it necessary option on the search engine for all users to enjoy.

This easy payment option is done by using the iPhone 6 by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as well as the iPhone 6 Plus, iPad mini 3 and the iPad Air 2.  The Apple Watch will soon come on board as a payment device also.

The great news, this holiday season, is that the Apple Pay can be used on many online purchases.  Some of the stores that support this internet payment method include the Disney Store, Target and of course the Apple Store.  Other retailers participating include: MLB.com, Panera, Starbucks, Sephora, Groupon and Open Table.

Adobe Digital Index believes that digital wallets will soon become commonplace and the default method of payment for many Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) device users.

The latest published analysis said that the conversion rate of online purchases is higher when internet based stores are willing to accept digital wallets as an alternative payment method.  More specifically, it is said that customers are 10% more likely to complete an online transaction if digital wallets are offered as a payment alternative.

According to Tamara Gaffney, the primary analyst at ADI (Adobe Digital Index), she believes that many retailers are excited about Apple Pay and its implications on the total shopping experience.  In store adoption of this new technology is slow because it does require that new updated systems need to be installed.  With this in mind, it is obvious that the big win with Apple Pay will be with online retailers.

By using Passbook, users can now add debt and credit cards.  This can be done either through an iTunes account or with the iPhone iSight camera that will capture the data from the card.  Information from the card can also be manually entered.

American Express, MasterCard and Visa will work closely with Apple Pay as well as financial institutions like Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

Security is always a concern, but one of the unique features of the Apple Pay is that all financial data is stored directly on the device.  It is never seen by the vendor or by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).  Instead of having the credit card number transmitted, a unique account number as well as a security code is transmitted for your privacy.  In addition, the Touch Identification will be in place that will prevent purchases from going through unless the user places their fingertip on the sensor.

For added security, if the mobile device is lost or stolen, Find My IPhone service, a specialized feature of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will locate the device and disable the Apple Pay feature.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) opened the stock market today at 113.94 and at 9:57 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, it is holding at 114.50 per share.  The 52 week outlook ranges from 70.51 to 117.28 with a mkt cap of 671.76B.  There is a 62% institutional ownership.

However, the deal has gone a little differently, as P&G (NYSE:PG) had planned. The brand is being sold to the Nebraska based Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B), under the terms that P&G (NYSE:PG) will get shares of stock that belongs to the company and are currently held by Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B). The current value of these shares sums up to approximately $4.7 billion. Off this amount, a total of $1.7 billion will be awarded to the Duracell brand, before closure of the deal.

Warner Buffett released a statement recently, on the offset of this deal and has shown his satisfaction with Duracell as a brand, and feels that P&G (NYSE:PG) and Gillette are safe bets to invest capital in.

P&G (NYSE:PG), the proud owner of products such as Tide washing powder and Pampers diapers is now trying to cut down on the long list of products that it currently manufacturers, and plans to focus on its top of the range products. The company plans to cut down to 70 or 80 brands, once it cuts down on the extensive list in its global franchises.

P&G (NYSE:PG) has had Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) as a long time shareholder, since its acquisition of Gillette, nearly ten years ago. However, the Duracell procurement is bigger than that and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) may have to utilize the whole 52.48 million shares. This deal is estimated to cost $336 million to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B).

Buffett is always looking for opportunities to extend Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) and add to its ever growing list of brands. However, the $62.4 billion acquired at the end of Q3 will remain untouched.

Berkshire (NYSE:BRK.B) owns several other popular brands, and has over 80 names added to its list of ventures, with Fruit of the Loom, Helzberg Diamonds, Geico Insurance, as the most popular ones.

P&G (NYSE:PG) stated that it will take home nearly 28 cents per share for its current quarter, for the Duracell deal. This deal will be shook hands on towards the later part of the year 2015. P&G (NYSE:PG) shares have dipped by 88 cents, summing at $88.60, in trading before the market opened.

The deal is expected to do well for both contractors involved. Duracell is quite a popular brand that has drawn consumer satisfaction for a long time, and Berkshire (NYSE:BRK.B) can expect to generate good capital from this investment. The efforts of P&G (NYSE:PG) to sell its established brands helps the company to make good investments, and allows it to shed off extra weight to concentrate on its best yielding products.