As Christmas rolls its way relentlessly towards us, chocolate and tax (not chocolate tax thankfully), Serco and Morgan Stanley were among the stocking fillers for web browsers today.
The owner of chocolate giant Cadburys, Mondelez is in trouble over its tax after the Sunday Times revealed in an investigation that it paid zero UK corporation tax last year via an arrangement, which is not illegal.
In a technical arrangement, journalists found interest payments on the group's unsecured debt, listed as a bond in the Channel Islands, were able to be offset against gains elsewhere. This meant there was no tax bill -despite sales of over £2bn last year.
"The founders of Cadbury, who set it up as an ethical company, will be turning in their graves," Margaret Hodge, chair of the Parliamentary all-party group on responsible tax, was quoted as saying.
Elsewhere, outsourcer Serco (LON:SRP) and FTSE250 member saw shares tank over 7% after it warned that next year's profit would be less than expected after the government sold its offshore call centre business and lost a number of contracts.
The sale of its business processing outsourcing (BPO) firm to private Blackstone three months ago will reduce profit by about £20mln, Serco said.
Morgan Stanley, the heavyweight US investment behemoth, was also in the news as staff there are probably not feeling overly festive as they brace this week for further redundancies as it wields the axe at its fixed income division.
The bank is reportedly honing in on this side of the business after years of declines in revenues.
Speaking of job cuts, there was news in this regard from mining and commodities titan Glencore (LON:GLEN), which revealed it will cut nearly 80% of workers at the Collinsville coal operation in Australia - meaning about 180 jobs.
It follows a sharp decline in the price of thermal coal, which is the type used in power generating stations.
Sticking to the sector, small cap explorer Sunrise Resource (LON:SRES) was seeing traction in the shares today - lifting over 14% as it revealed it had staked claims over a new US industrial minerals project.
The Pozz Ash possolan project claims cover a deposit of volcanic ash which the firm is now evaluating the site for use as an environmentally friendly replacement for Portland cement in the manufacture of cement and concrete mixes