Author: Steven Sahiounie

The average annual Wall Street bonus fell to $176,700 last year, a 26% drop from the previous year’s average of $240,400, according to estimates released Thursday by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The 2022 bonus figure is more than twice the median annual income for US households. Rising interest rates, recession fears and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hurt Wall Street firms’ bottom line. That led to a steep drop in mergers and acquisitions last year and a dearth of initial public offerings, which ordinarily generate huge revenues for the banks handling those mega-transactions. Look no further than Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which both…

“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army will take all necessary measures to protect national sovereignty and security and will resolutely defend peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Tan Kefei assured The US Armed Forces must stop provoking China in the South China Sea, otherwise they will bear responsibility for any potential incidents, Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Tan Kefei warned on Thursday. The comment was Tan’s response to a US Navy vessel that allegedly sailed near the China-controlled Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. “We sternly demand that the United States immediately stop such provocations, otherwise it will bear…

Suddenly, your beverage is taller. Beverage brands rely on packaging shape and design to draw in consumers. Now they’re counting on a new slew of skinny aluminum cans to subtly signal to consumers that their exotic new drinks are healthier than the beer and sodas in the short, round cans of old. Topo Chico, Simply and SunnyD recently launched alcoholic seltzers and cocktails in tall, thin cans, while Day One, Celsius and Starbucks have debuted sparkling water and energy drinks in new slim cans. Coke with Coffee launched in a slim version last year, too. As if describing a human,Ball, one of the largest aluminum can…

Moscow will continue to inform Washington of its launches, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said Russia will continue to inform the US about its ballistic missile launches despite Moscow suspending its participation in the New START treaty, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has stated. Russia placed its participation in the New START treaty – the last remaining nuclear accord with Washington – on hold in February. Explaining the move, President Vladimir Putin said that the 2010 deal had been signed under different circumstances, when Russia and the US did not perceive each other as adversaries. The West had also…

Moscow will continue to inform Washington of its launches, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said Russia will continue to inform the US about its ballistic missile launches despite Moscow suspending its participation in the New START treaty, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has stated. Russia placed its participation in the New START treaty – the last remaining nuclear accord with Washington – on hold in February. Explaining the move, President Vladimir Putin said that the 2010 deal had been signed under different circumstances, when Russia and the US did not perceive each other as adversaries. The West had also…

Ledger has raised most of a €100 million ($109 million) funding round at a €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) valuation, the company told Bloomberg. Media outlets first reported on a potential new capital raise last August. The collapse of centralized crypto exchange FTX and recent U.S. regulatory actions against competitor Binance have made many digital asset owners wary of leaving their tokens in the hands of others. Ledger’s hardware products allow users to store their assets in a secure, physical location. “Suddenly people were like ‘wow, to leave crypto on an exchange is actually dangerous,'” Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier, told Bloomberg. “And 2023…

Kraken has filed pre-registration paperwork with the Ontario Securities Commission as it works towards becoming a registered Restricted Dealer in Canada. U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is remaining in Canada and complying with tougher rules set out by the country’s financial regulator, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA). Kraken has filed a pre-registration undertaking with the Ontario Securities Commission as it works towards becoming a registered Restricted Dealer across Canada, the company said in a press release on Thursday. Canada has tightened its rules governing crypto exchanges and set a deadline to commit to a set of enhanced pre-registration undertakings (PRU), causing…

Market makers selling the options may need to buy more bitcoin in the spot market to cover their positions if the cryptocurrency rises further. Bitcoin (BTC) could see wild price swings heading into the weekend as options contracts worth billions of dollars tied to the cryptocurrency are set to expire on Friday. At press time, the quarterly expiry on the dominant crypto options exchange Deribit comprised 81,052 call options worth $2.24 billion and 60,261 put options worth $1.73 billion, according to data from Amberdata. Deribit, which accounts for almost 80% of the global crypto options activity, will settle the quarterly…

XRP trading made up nearly 50% of all volume on Korbit, a prominent local exchange. The South Korean crypto trading mania has seemingly returned fueled by the surge in XRP tokens. Trading volume for XRP spiked to billions of dollars on UpBit, Bithumb and Korbit, three of Korea’s top exchanges by volume, on the back of the token’s 26% rise in the past week. In the past 24 hours, XRP trading made up 37% of all volume on Bithumb, 18% of volume on UpBit and a staggering 50% of all volume on Korbit, data from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap shows. These…

Bed Bath & Beyond is warning of a bankruptcy filing — again — if a proposed $300 million stock offering doesn’t pay off. The beleaguered retailer said in a securities filing Thursday that its lenders downsized its loan. If it doesn’t receive proceeds from the stock offering, Bed Bath & Beyond warned Thursday it will likely need to file for bankruptcy protection. In addition, the company disclosed that the loans it secured last year were downsized. According to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said its $565 million revolving loan was decreased from $565 million to $300 million.…