According to a report, Wall Street workers have received an average of $257,500 in bonuses last year. DiNapoli wrote in the report, "Wall Street's soaring profits continued to beat expectations in 2021 and drove record bonuses".

Wall Street bonuses hit record high, likely to come down this year

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked five Chinese companies to meet audit requirements or face delisting from Wall Street.

These Chinese companies include fast-food company Yum China Holdings, tech firm ACM Research, biotech group BeiGene, Zai Lab, and pharmaceutical company Hutchmed.

Chinese authorities have expressed reservations in recent months about China-based companies listing in the US.&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/asian-stocks-regain-their-footing-indian-markets-open-in-green-460433/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Chinese companies have sold shares abroad for two decades but regulators have yet to say whether their financial structures comply with rules that ban foreign ownership of internet companies and limit access to other industries.

Yum China, which controls KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut and other eateries in China, surpasses the other companies by far in revenue and capitalization.

Born from the 2016 spin-off of the Chinese operations of US-based Yum Brands, Yum China has a market capitalisation of $18.8 billion.&nbsp;

China Securities Regulatory Commission responded to the US move and said it was confident it will reach an agreement with US counterparts on securities supervision.&nbsp;

<a href="wionews.com/business-economy/new-york-stock-exchange-to-delist-chinese-telecom-firms-on-us-executive-order-353745">Also read |&nbsp;New York Stock Exchange to delist Chinese telecom firms on US executive order</a>

Talks between the CSRC, the Chinese finance ministry and the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board had made "positive progress," the CSRC said in a statement.

Meanwhile, ride-hailing firm Didi Global Inc has suspended preparations for its Hong Kong listing after failing to appease Chinese regulators' demand to overhaul its systems for handling sensitive user data, Bloomberg News reported.

The Cyberspace Administration of China told Didi executives that their proposals to prevent security and data leaks had fallen short, Bloomberg said.

Regulators said in July they would step up scrutiny of tech companies with shares traded abroad and their information security and cross-border data flows.

The US Congress in 2020 passed a law specifically targeting Chinese companies under which the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) must be able to inspect audits of foreign firms listed on US markets.

Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies are notorious for not submitting their financial statements to US-approved auditors.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked five Chinese companies to meet audit requirements or face delisting from Wall Street. These Chinese companies include fast-food company Yum China Holdings, tech firm ACM Research, biotech group BeiGene, Zai Lab, and pharmaceutical company Hutchmed.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked five Chinese companies to meet audit requirements or face delisting from Wall Street. These Chinese companies include fast-food company Yum China Holdings, tech firm ACM Research, biotech group BeiGene, Zai Lab, and pharmaceutical company Hutchmed. Chinese authorities have expressed reservations in recent months about China-based companies listing in the US. Chinese companies have sold shares abroad for two decades but regulators have yet to say whether their financial structures comply with rules that ban foreign ownership of internet companies and limit access to other industries. Yum China, which controls KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut and other eateries in China, surpasses the other companies by far in revenue and capitalization. Born from the 2016 spin-off of the Chinese operations of US-based Yum Brands, Yum China has a market capitalisation of $18.8 billion. China Securities Regulatory Commission responded to the US move and said it was confident it will reach an agreement with US counterparts on securities supervision. Also read | New York Stock Exchange to delist Chinese telecom firms on US executive order Talks between the CSRC, the Chinese finance ministry and the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board had made "positive progress," the CSRC said in a statement. Meanwhile, ride-hailing firm Didi Global Inc has suspended preparations for its Hong Kong listing after failing to appease Chinese regulators' demand to overhaul its systems for handling sensitive user data, Bloomberg News reported. The Cyberspace Administration of China told Didi executives that their proposals to prevent security and data leaks had fallen short, Bloomberg said. Regulators said in July they would step up scrutiny of tech companies with shares traded abroad and their information security and cross-border data flows. The US Congress in 2020 passed a law specifically targeting Chinese companies under which the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) must be able to inspect audits of foreign firms listed on US markets. Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies are notorious for not submitting their financial statements to US-approved auditors. (With inputs from agencies)

US asks Chinese companies to comply or face delisting from Wall Street

The sister of convicted Wall Street Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and her husband were found dead in the US state of Florida, said media reports. &nbsp;

The couple, who were identified as 87-year-old Sondra Wiener and her 90-year-old husband Marvin, were found unresponsive at their home in Boynton Beach on Thursday, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said, as per the Associated Press. &nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-plans-to-cut-ties-with-targeted-russian-banks-if-ukraine-is-invaded-sources-454960" hreflang="en">US plans to cut ties with targeted Russian banks if Ukraine is invaded: Sources</a>

According to the sheriff's office, the detectives from the Violent Crimes Division arrived at the home and further investigation indicated "it appears to be a murder or suicide." &nbsp;

A medical examiner will specify the official cause of death, AP reported. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Madoff had pleaded guilty to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He had died of natural causes in a North Carolina prison in April 2021 at the age of 82. Madoff was serving a 150-year prison sentence, which began in 2009.&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-ready-to-meet-putin-until-the-moment-ukraine-invasion-begins-454912" hreflang="en">Biden ready to meet Putin 'until the moment' Ukraine invasion begins</a>

In a statement, a woman, who identified herself as the wife of David Wiener, the son of the couple, asked for the media to give the family some privacy at this time, the AP noted. &nbsp;

“We are not making any comment at this time,” she said. &nbsp;&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

The sister of convicted Wall Street Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and her husband were found dead in the US state of Florida, said media reports. The couple, who were identified as 87-year-old Sondra Wiener and her 90-year-old husband Marvin, were found unresponsive at their home in Boynton Beach on Thursday, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said, as per the Associated Press.

The sister of convicted Wall Street Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and her husband were found dead in the US state of Florida, said media reports. The couple, who were identified as 87-year-old Sondra Wiener and her 90-year-old husband Marvin, were found unresponsive at their home in Boynton Beach on Thursday, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said, as per the Associated Press. Also Read | US plans to cut ties with targeted Russian banks if Ukraine is invaded: Sources According to the sheriff's office, the detectives from the Violent Crimes Division arrived at the home and further investigation indicated "it appears to be a murder or suicide." A medical examiner will specify the official cause of death, AP reported. Madoff had pleaded guilty to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He had died of natural causes in a North Carolina prison in April 2021 at the age of 82. Madoff was serving a 150-year prison sentence, which began in 2009. Also Read: Biden ready to meet Putin 'until the moment' Ukraine invasion begins In a statement, a woman, who identified herself as the wife of David Wiener, the son of the couple, asked for the media to give the family some privacy at this time, the AP noted. “We are not making any comment at this time,” she said. (With inputs from agencies)

Wall Street Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff’s sister, husband found dead, say reports

Global markets are reacting to the new scare of the Omicron variant. Here's a report on how wall street reacted to the Omicron scare in America.

Will global markets stage a comeback?

Ana María Banegas lives on a sun-drenched street in central Barcelona, a short walk from where her children go to school. Outside, a doormat welcomes visitors: “Home Sweet Home.”

But this is where the domestic idyll ends. The building’s owner isn’t your typical landlord, she says, but rather a private equity firm thousands of miles away. And Banegas is no typical tenant: Along with a dozen other families who have been struggling financially during the pandemic, she has occupied the building since April and now refuses to leave.

“This property belongs to Cerberus,” said Banegas, referring to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm based in New York. “And from this home, we aim to pressure them.”

Her protest is part of a battle that is being waged in the courtrooms, living rooms and streets of Barcelona, pitting foreign investment firms that have bought up thousands of homes across Spain over the past decade against residents and activists who are using a novel strategy to try to stop them from evicting renters who have fallen behind.

On one side is Cerberus, which, along with other giant investment firms like Blackstone and Lone Star, has been snapping up properties across Spain at bargain prices since the global financial crisis that began in 2008. The firms then put them up for rent at a time when the country’s economy was on a stronger footing.

But the pandemic pushed the Spanish unemployment rate up to 15%, and evictions nationwide spiked in the first half of 2021. The investment firm landlords sent out a slew of eviction notices to tenants across the country or cancelled leases for those who fell behind on the rent, residents said.

In the streets of Barcelona, a group called War Against Cerberus decided to fight back.

When lawyers of private equity firms come with police officers to force residents from their homes, members of the group — some of them longtime housing activists — surround the building to block their entry. As residents are pushed out of apartments, the group sends squatters to occupy properties owned by the firms elsewhere in the city — sometimes breaking in to gain entry.

The activists even took over the offices of a Cerberus real estate servicer in Barcelona for a time last year.

According to War Against Cerberus, dozens of families have occupied buildings owned by private equity firms in Barcelona, which has long been a target of outside investors. That can translate into years of courtroom hearings and millions of dollars in legal fees to remove the squatters.

Miquel Hernández, a spokesman for War Against Cerberus who helped Banegas find the home where she is squatting, accused the private equity firms of profiting from the economic distress caused by the pandemic.

“They’re treating them like any other asset,” he said, referring to the homes owned by the firms.

The problem has caught the attention of Spain’s national government, led by a left-wing coalition. It has proposed the imposition of rent controls on investment funds and other large landlords.

The proposed legislation, supported by Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, would allow for rent caps for owners with more than 10 properties in areas where rent increases have outpaced inflation.

“We have to civilize a market that has gotten out of control,” said Colau, a former housing activist who rose to power with an organization that fought against foreclosures. “A problem that was bad before the pandemic has suddenly gotten worse.”

She attributed much of the increase in evictions to investment firms that refused to negotiate agreements with renters who fall behind, choosing instead to force them out and find others who can pay.

Spain imposed a partial moratorium on evictions for much of the pandemic, but only for those in “vulnerable situations,” such as single parents. In cases that went to the courts, the judiciary was seen as siding largely with the landlords.

Cerberus said it was committed to treating every resident with dignity and respect and to following the law.

“We believe it is the responsibility of all corporate citizens to not only respect the dignity of everyone but also appropriately address illegal activity that can harm communities,” a company spokesman said in a statement to The New York Times.

The Association of Rental Housing Owners, a Spanish group which includes some of the outside investment firms, took aim at the proposed housing law, saying that rent controls would only discourage owners from building new rental units during a time of low supply.

The conflict in Barcelona traces its roots to the financial crisis that started in 2008. That downturn hit homeowners hardest, driving many of them, as well as the banks that owned their mortgages, into bankruptcy. The crisis also fueled evictions and the rise of a protest movement to defend homeowners against predatory loans.

But thousands lost their homes anyway, and many of them became renters. And in the current crisis, it is renters who have suffered the brunt of the damage, activists say.

As defaults became common and credit harder to come by, the number of renters in the country grew by more than 40% over the last decade. At the same time, private firms amassed at least 40,000 properties in Spain, according to estimates by economists and the Spanish news media.

Even so, homeownership has remained relatively high in Spain, about 75%.

In one case in 2013, Blackstone, now thought to be Spain’s biggest landlord, bought more than 1,800 apartments from the Madrid city government, which was low on cash.

But those types of acquisitions did not cause a stir until the pandemic left the firms, like many other landlords, serving up eviction notices for those who could not make the rent.

In the first quarter of 2021, evictions of renters in Spain rose by 14% compared with the same period the previous year, according to the government. By the second quarter of this year, they surged to eight times as many as in the same period in 2020.

One complaint about private equity landlords is that being based abroad, they are difficult to reach to negotiate settlements, unlike local landlords.

Irma Vite, a 47-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, first received a notice in 2019 that the lease for her rental apartment would not be renewed by Divarian, a Cerberus-owned real estate company in Spain. She has spent the entire pandemic fighting in courts to remain in the home.

Her story offers a window into the unregulated world of Spanish housing, which allowed private equity companies to become such dominant landlords here. She bought the apartment in 2005 for 216,000 euros, or about $267,000 at the time, with no down payment, from a local Spanish bank. Her monthly mortgage payments were 900 euros.

The mortgage had a fluctuating interest rate, however, and by 2009, her payments had risen to 1,200 euros. By 2015, she could no longer afford the payments, and she entered foreclosure proceedings with the bank, which allowed her to remain in the home as a renter.

But that bank, Caixa Catalunya, was barely solvent itself. In 2016, it merged with Spanish giant BBVA, which extended her rental agreement until 2019.

In October 2019, she received a letter from Divarian, the Cerberus company, saying that it now owned the property and would no longer rent to her. Vite sought help from the War Against Cerberus and has spent the last two years refusing to leave her home.

Cases like hers are becoming more common and have provided War Against Cerberus opportunities to flex its muscles. In October, the group got word of five evictions that were scheduled in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a town on the outskirts of Barcelona.

When a lawyer representing the firm that owned the apartments arrived with police, they were met by about 50 activists who surrounded the building. A crowd of residents soon arrived, chanting for the officers to leave.

“You’re vultures,” one of the protesters yelled.

Police backed down, saying that they would give the owners an extension before their eviction.

War Against Cerberus is also trying to play offense against private equity firms by sending residents like Banegas to occupy apartments that the firms own in Barcelona. Hernández, the activist spokesman, said that the group’s goal was to eventually pressure Cerberus into agreeing to allow the squatters to remain and pay reasonable monthly rents.

Vite said she would much rather go back to paying rent than keep squatting. But so far, Cerberus has refused to make an agreement with her and has asked a court to evict her.

An auxiliary nurse at a nearby hospital, Vite said that she recently came across a man suffering from depression who was also being forced out of his home after not being able to pay the rent and that they had briefly commiserated.

“I was there as the nurse, he as my patient, and I was just thinking — 'Look at what’s at the root of all of these problems,' ” she said.

Ana María Banegas lives on a sun-drenched street in central Barcelona, a short walk from where her children go to school. Outside, a doormat welcomes visitors: “Home Sweet Home.

Ana María Banegas lives on a sun-drenched street in central Barcelona, a short walk from where her children go to school. Outside, a doormat welcomes visitors: “Home Sweet Home.” But this is where the domestic idyll ends. The building’s owner isn’t your typical landlord, she says, but rather a private equity firm thousands of miles away. And Banegas is no typical tenant: Along with a dozen other families who have been struggling financially during the pandemic, she has occupied the building since April and now refuses to leave. “This property belongs to Cerberus,” said Banegas, referring to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm based in New York. “And from this home, we aim to pressure them.” Her protest is part of a battle that is being waged in the courtrooms, living rooms and streets of Barcelona, pitting foreign investment firms that have bought up thousands of homes across Spain over the past decade against residents and activists who are using a novel strategy to try to stop them from evicting renters who have fallen behind. On one side is Cerberus, which, along with other giant investment firms like Blackstone and Lone Star, has been snapping up properties across Spain at bargain prices since the global financial crisis that began in 2008. The firms then put them up for rent at a time when the country’s economy was on a stronger footing. But the pandemic pushed the Spanish unemployment rate up to 15%, and evictions nationwide spiked in the first half of 2021. The investment firm landlords sent out a slew of eviction notices to tenants across the country or cancelled leases for those who fell behind on the rent, residents said. In the streets of Barcelona, a group called War Against Cerberus decided to fight back. When lawyers of private equity firms come with police officers to force residents from their homes, members of the group — some of them longtime housing activists — surround the building to block their entry. As residents are pushed out of apartments, the group sends squatters to occupy properties owned by the firms elsewhere in the city — sometimes breaking in to gain entry. The activists even took over the offices of a Cerberus real estate servicer in Barcelona for a time last year. According to War Against Cerberus, dozens of families have occupied buildings owned by private equity firms in Barcelona, which has long been a target of outside investors. That can translate into years of courtroom hearings and millions of dollars in legal fees to remove the squatters. Miquel Hernández, a spokesman for War Against Cerberus who helped Banegas find the home where she is squatting, accused the private equity firms of profiting from the economic distress caused by the pandemic. “They’re treating them like any other asset,” he said, referring to the homes owned by the firms. The problem has caught the attention of Spain’s national government, led by a left-wing coalition. It has proposed the imposition of rent controls on investment funds and other large landlords. The proposed legislation, supported by Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, would allow for rent caps for owners with more than 10 properties in areas where rent increases have outpaced inflation. “We have to civilize a market that has gotten out of control,” said Colau, a former housing activist who rose to power with an organization that fought against foreclosures. “A problem that was bad before the pandemic has suddenly gotten worse.” She attributed much of the increase in evictions to investment firms that refused to negotiate agreements with renters who fall behind, choosing instead to force them out and find others who can pay. Spain imposed a partial moratorium on evictions for much of the pandemic, but only for those in “vulnerable situations,” such as single parents. In cases that went to the courts, the judiciary was seen as siding largely with the landlords. Cerberus said it was committed to treating every resident with dignity and respect and to following the law. “We believe it is the responsibility of all corporate citizens to not only respect the dignity of everyone but also appropriately address illegal activity that can harm communities,” a company spokesman said in a statement to The New York Times. The Association of Rental Housing Owners, a Spanish group which includes some of the outside investment firms, took aim at the proposed housing law, saying that rent controls would only discourage owners from building new rental units during a time of low supply. The conflict in Barcelona traces its roots to the financial crisis that started in 2008. That downturn hit homeowners hardest, driving many of them, as well as the banks that owned their mortgages, into bankruptcy. The crisis also fueled evictions and the rise of a protest movement to defend homeowners against predatory loans. But thousands lost their homes anyway, and many of them became renters. And in the current crisis, it is renters who have suffered the brunt of the damage, activists say. As defaults became common and credit harder to come by, the number of renters in the country grew by more than 40% over the last decade. At the same time, private firms amassed at least 40,000 properties in Spain, according to estimates by economists and the Spanish news media. Even so, homeownership has remained relatively high in Spain, about 75%. In one case in 2013, Blackstone, now thought to be Spain’s biggest landlord, bought more than 1,800 apartments from the Madrid city government, which was low on cash. But those types of acquisitions did not cause a stir until the pandemic left the firms, like many other landlords, serving up eviction notices for those who could not make the rent. In the first quarter of 2021, evictions of renters in Spain rose by 14% compared with the same period the previous year, according to the government. By the second quarter of this year, they surged to eight times as many as in the same period in 2020. One complaint about private equity landlords is that being based abroad, they are difficult to reach to negotiate settlements, unlike local landlords. Irma Vite, a 47-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, first received a notice in 2019 that the lease for her rental apartment would not be renewed by Divarian, a Cerberus-owned real estate company in Spain. She has spent the entire pandemic fighting in courts to remain in the home. Her story offers a window into the unregulated world of Spanish housing, which allowed private equity companies to become such dominant landlords here. She bought the apartment in 2005 for 216,000 euros, or about $267,000 at the time, with no down payment, from a local Spanish bank. Her monthly mortgage payments were 900 euros. The mortgage had a fluctuating interest rate, however, and by 2009, her payments had risen to 1,200 euros. By 2015, she could no longer afford the payments, and she entered foreclosure proceedings with the bank, which allowed her to remain in the home as a renter. But that bank, Caixa Catalunya, was barely solvent itself. In 2016, it merged with Spanish giant BBVA, which extended her rental agreement until 2019. In October 2019, she received a letter from Divarian, the Cerberus company, saying that it now owned the property and would no longer rent to her. Vite sought help from the War Against Cerberus and has spent the last two years refusing to leave her home. Cases like hers are becoming more common and have provided War Against Cerberus opportunities to flex its muscles. In October, the group got word of five evictions that were scheduled in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a town on the outskirts of Barcelona. When a lawyer representing the firm that owned the apartments arrived with police, they were met by about 50 activists who surrounded the building. A crowd of residents soon arrived, chanting for the officers to leave. “You’re vultures,” one of the protesters yelled. Police backed down, saying that they would give the owners an extension before their eviction. War Against Cerberus is also trying to play offense against private equity firms by sending residents like Banegas to occupy apartments that the firms own in Barcelona. Hernández, the activist spokesman, said that the group’s goal was to eventually pressure Cerberus into agreeing to allow the squatters to remain and pay reasonable monthly rents. Vite said she would much rather go back to paying rent than keep squatting. But so far, Cerberus has refused to make an agreement with her and has asked a court to evict her. An auxiliary nurse at a nearby hospital, Vite said that she recently came across a man suffering from depression who was also being forced out of his home after not being able to pay the rent and that they had briefly commiserated. “I was there as the nurse, he as my patient, and I was just thinking — 'Look at what’s at the root of all of these problems,' ” she said.

As pandemic evictions rise, Spaniards declare ‘war’ on Wall Street landlords

The iconic Charging Bull on Wall Street may be unstoppable. He may represent the Alpha behaviour that characterises the financial district. But he seems to have encountered a formidable foe in the form of Harambe the gorilla.

A seven-foot statue of the gorilla has been installed in front of the Charging Bull. What's more, the bull is surrounded by 10,000 bananas. The prime symbol of capitalism has a gorilla stoically sitting in his way, and he appears in no mood to budge.

The statue has been installed by Sapien. Network. It is a social media platform that describes itself as “dedicated to putting the needs and welfare of human beings first.”

Founders of Sapien. Network, Robert Giometti, Tejay Aluru and Ankit Bhatia were quoted by NBC as saying that the gorilla statue represents millions who struggle in America's capitalist system. According to them, the capitalist system “enriches wealthy elites and leaves the average person behind." Giometti adds that though the artwork is at odds with the system, it does not necessarily oppose Capitalism.

Harambe was a gorilla in Cincinnati Zoo. He was shot dead in May, 2016 by authorities when a 3-year-old ventured into his enclosure. The gorilla was cradling the child and as per many onlookers, appeared to be protecting the child. Harambe's killing had hit global headlines and caused an uproar.

The iconic Charging Bull on Wall Street may be unstoppable. He may represent the Alpha behaviour that characterises the financial district. But he seems to have encountered a formidable foe in the form of Harambe the gorilla.

The iconic Charging Bull on Wall Street may be unstoppable. He may represent the Alpha behaviour that characterises the financial district. But he seems to have encountered a formidable foe in the form of Harambe the gorilla. A seven-foot statue of the gorilla has been installed in front of the Charging Bull. What's more, the bull is surrounded by 10,000 bananas. The prime symbol of capitalism has a gorilla stoically sitting in his way, and he appears in no mood to budge. The statue has been installed by Sapien. Network. It is a social media platform that describes itself as “dedicated to putting the needs and welfare of human beings first.” Founders of Sapien. Network, Robert Giometti, Tejay Aluru and Ankit Bhatia were quoted by NBC as saying that the gorilla statue represents millions who struggle in America's capitalist system. According to them, the capitalist system “enriches wealthy elites and leaves the average person behind." Giometti adds that though the artwork is at odds with the system, it does not necessarily oppose Capitalism. Harambe was a gorilla in Cincinnati Zoo. He was shot dead in May, 2016 by authorities when a 3-year-old ventured into his enclosure. The gorilla was cradling the child and as per many onlookers, appeared to be protecting the child. Harambe's killing had hit global headlines and caused an uproar.

Harambe the gorilla's statue stands in the way of Charging Bull on Wall Street

Despite fresh all-time highs on Wall Street, Asian stock markets opened lower today, as worries about China's slowing economic growth and regulatory changes weighed on investor sentiments. WION's Sumit Chaturvedi talks to Margaret Yang Yan, DailyFX strategist for more perspective.

World Business Watch: Fresh all time highs on wall street registered

As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin scrambled to save faltering markets at the start of the pandemic last year, America’s top economic officials were in near-constant contact with a Wall Street executive whose firm stood to benefit financially from the rescue.

Laurence Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, was in frequent touch with Mnuchin and Powell in the days before and after many of the Fed’s emergency rescue programs were announced in late March. Emails obtained by The New York Times through a records request, along with public releases, underscore the extent to which Fink planned alongside the government for parts of a financial rescue that his firm referred to in one message as “the project” that he and the Fed were “working on together.”

While some conversations were previously disclosed, the newly released emails, together with public calendar records, show the extent to which economic policymakers worked with a private company as they were drawing up a response to the financial meltdown and how intertwined BlackRock has become with the federal government.

Mnuchin held 60 recorded calls over the frantic Saturday and Sunday leading up to the Fed’s unveiling on March 23, 2020, of a policy package that included its first-ever program to buy corporate bonds, which were becoming nearly impossible to sell as investors sprinted to convert their holdings to cash.

Mnuchin spoke to Fink five times that weekend, more than anyone other than the Fed chair, whom he spoke with nine times. Fink joined Mnuchin, Powell and Larry Kudlow, who was the White House National Economic Council director, for a brief call at 7:25 the evening before the Fed’s big announcement, based on Mnuchin’s calendars.

The records reveal how often federal officials engaged with a Wall Street executive at a moment of crisis, as they strategized about how to turn around markets that were descending into chaos.

Fink’s firm is a huge player across many stock and debt markets and its advisory arm helped to execute some of the Fed’s crisis response during the 2008 financial meltdown. That market insight and experience got him a front-row seat at a pivotal moment, one that may have put him in a position to influence a rescue with huge ramifications for households, businesses and the entire U.S. economy.

“They’re about as close to a government arm as you can be, without being the Federal Reserve,” said William Birdthistle, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law and the author of a book on funds.

On March 24, the New York Fed announced that it had again hired BlackRock’s advisory arm, which operates separately from the company’s asset-management business but which Fink oversees, this time to carry out the Fed’s purchases of commercial mortgage-backed securities and corporate bonds.

BlackRock’s ability to directly profit from its regular contact with the government during rescue planning was limited. The firm signed a nondisclosure agreement with the New York Fed on March 22, restricting involved officials from sharing information about the coming programs.

But how the Fed and Treasury devised their rescue package mattered to BlackRock. The company makes a profit by managing money for clients in an array of funds, generally charging a preset fee. It earns more when it grows its assets under management. In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, as people converted financial holdings into cash, parts of its asset base were contracting and its business outlook hinged on what happened in certain markets.

While the Fed and Treasury consulted with many financial firms as they drew up their response — and practically all of Wall Street and much of Main Street benefited — no other company was as front and center.

Simply being in touch throughout the government’s planning was good for BlackRock, potentially burnishing its image over the longer run, Birdthistle said. BlackRock would have benefited through “tons of information, tons of secondary financial benefits,” he said.

Mnuchin could not be reached for comment. Asked whether top Fed officials discussed program details with Fink before his firm had signed the nondisclosure agreement, the Fed said that Powell and Randal Quarles, a Fed vice chair who also appears in the emails, “have no recollection of discussing the terms of either facility with Mr. Fink.”

“Nor did they have any reason to do so because the Federal Reserve Bank of New York handled the process with great care and transparency,” the central bank added in its statement.

Brian Beades, a spokesman for BlackRock, highlighted that the firm had “stringent information barriers in place that ensure separation between BlackRock Financial Markets Advisory and the firm’s investment business” and said it was “proud to have been in a position to assist the Federal Reserve in addressing the severe downturn in financial markets during the depths of the crisis.”

The disclosed emails between Fed and BlackRock officials — 11 in all across March and early April — do not make clear whether the company knew about any of the Fed and Treasury programs’ designs or whether they were simply providing market information.

Emails indicate that Powell spoke with Fink on March 23, hours after the Fed announced its corporate bond program.

“Larry Fink is available to speak today regarding the project you will be working on together,” an email from Fink’s assistant directly to Powell said. “Please let us know if there is a convenient time for you.”

“Now is good,” Powell replied.

The call does not appear on the Fed chair’s official schedule from last March. Those calendars generally track scheduled events, and may have missed meetings in early 2020 when staffers were frantically working on the market rescue and the Fed was shifting to work from home, a central bank spokesman said.

Powell’s calendars did show that he talked to Fink in March, April and May, and he has previously answered questions about those discussions.

“I can’t recall exactly what those conversations were, but they would have been about what he is seeing in the markets and things like that, to generally exchanging information,” Powell said at a July 2020 news conference, adding that it wasn’t “very many” conversations. “He’s typically trying to make sure that we are getting good service from the company that he founded and leads.”

BlackRock’s connections to Washington are not new. It was a critical player in the 2008 crisis response, when the New York Fed retained the firm’s advisory arm to manage the mortgage assets of the insurance giant American International Group and Bear Stearns.

Several former BlackRock employees have been named to top roles in President Joe Biden’s administration, including Brian Deese, who heads the White House National Economic Council, and Wally Adeyemo, who was Fink’s chief of staff and is now the No. 2 official at the Treasury.

The firm has grown rapidly: Its assets under management swelled from $1.3 trillion in early 2009 to $7.4 trillion in 2019. By the end of last year, they were $8.7 trillion.

As it expanded, it has stepped up its lobbying. In 2004, BlackRock Inc. registered two lobbyists and spent less than $200,000 on its efforts. By 2019 it had 20 lobbyists and spent nearly $2.5 million, though that declined slightly last year, based on OpenSecrets data. Campaign contributions tied to the firm also jumped, touching $1.7 million in 2020 (80% to Democrats, 20% to Republicans) from next to nothing as recently as 2004.

In March 2020, as some of BlackRock’s own offerings were being rocked at the pandemic’s onset in the United States, the firm reached out to Powell and Quarles, the emails show. In one or two cases, BlackRock appears to have had phone calls with Quarles. In others, Powell and Quarles did not reply, based on the released records.

The firm’s representatives also talked to Treasury policymakers other than Mnuchin in March, the emails show. One former official said such calls were part of routine information-gathering from a big market participant at a time when markets were rapidly falling apart.

BlackRock operates in short-term debt markets that came under intense stress as people and companies scrambled to move all of their holdings into cash. And problems were brewing in the corporate debt market, including in exchange-traded funds, which track bundles of corporate debt and other assets but trade like stocks.

Corporate bonds were difficult to trade and near impossible to issue in mid-March 2020. Prices on some high-grade corporate debt ETFs, including one of BlackRock’s, were out of whack relative to the values of the underlying assets, which is unusual.

People could still pull their money from ETFs, which both the industry and several outside academics have heralded as a sign of their resiliency. But investors would have had to take a financial hit to do so, relative to the quoted value of the underlying bonds. That could have bruised the product’s reputation in the eyes of some retail savers.

“This was the first time that ETFs came under stress in a really systemic way,” said Gregg Gelzinis, associate director for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress.

The Fed’s programs helped to turn that around. The central bank supported the corporate bond market on March 23, 2020, by pledging to buy both already issued debt and new bonds. The program for existing bonds promised to also buy ETFs, because they are a quick way to get access to a wide swath of the market. The bond market and fund recovery was nearly instant.

When the New York Fed retained BlackRock’s advisory arm to make the purchases, it rapidly disclosed details of those contracts to the public. The firm did the program cheaply for the government, waiving fees for exchange-traded fund buying and rebating fees from its own iShares ETFs back to the New York Fed.

The Fed has explained the decision to hire the advisory side of the house in terms of practicality.

“We hired BlackRock for their expertise in these markets,” Powell has since said in defense of the rapid move. “It was done very quickly due to the urgency and need for their expertise.”

As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin scrambled to save faltering markets at the start of the pandemic last year, America’s top economic officials were in near-constant contact with a Wall Street executive whose firm stood to benefit financially from the rescue.

As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin scrambled to save faltering markets at the start of the pandemic last year, America’s top economic officials were in near-constant contact with a Wall Street executive whose firm stood to benefit financially from the rescue. Laurence Fink, the chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, was in frequent touch with Mnuchin and Powell in the days before and after many of the Fed’s emergency rescue programs were announced in late March. Emails obtained by The New York Times through a records request, along with public releases, underscore the extent to which Fink planned alongside the government for parts of a financial rescue that his firm referred to in one message as “the project” that he and the Fed were “working on together.” While some conversations were previously disclosed, the newly released emails, together with public calendar records, show the extent to which economic policymakers worked with a private company as they were drawing up a response to the financial meltdown and how intertwined BlackRock has become with the federal government. Mnuchin held 60 recorded calls over the frantic Saturday and Sunday leading up to the Fed’s unveiling on March 23, 2020, of a policy package that included its first-ever program to buy corporate bonds, which were becoming nearly impossible to sell as investors sprinted to convert their holdings to cash. Mnuchin spoke to Fink five times that weekend, more than anyone other than the Fed chair, whom he spoke with nine times. Fink joined Mnuchin, Powell and Larry Kudlow, who was the White House National Economic Council director, for a brief call at 7:25 the evening before the Fed’s big announcement, based on Mnuchin’s calendars. The records reveal how often federal officials engaged with a Wall Street executive at a moment of crisis, as they strategized about how to turn around markets that were descending into chaos. Fink’s firm is a huge player across many stock and debt markets and its advisory arm helped to execute some of the Fed’s crisis response during the 2008 financial meltdown. That market insight and experience got him a front-row seat at a pivotal moment, one that may have put him in a position to influence a rescue with huge ramifications for households, businesses and the entire U.S. economy. “They’re about as close to a government arm as you can be, without being the Federal Reserve,” said William Birdthistle, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law and the author of a book on funds. On March 24, the New York Fed announced that it had again hired BlackRock’s advisory arm, which operates separately from the company’s asset-management business but which Fink oversees, this time to carry out the Fed’s purchases of commercial mortgage-backed securities and corporate bonds. BlackRock’s ability to directly profit from its regular contact with the government during rescue planning was limited. The firm signed a nondisclosure agreement with the New York Fed on March 22, restricting involved officials from sharing information about the coming programs. But how the Fed and Treasury devised their rescue package mattered to BlackRock. The company makes a profit by managing money for clients in an array of funds, generally charging a preset fee. It earns more when it grows its assets under management. In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, as people converted financial holdings into cash, parts of its asset base were contracting and its business outlook hinged on what happened in certain markets. While the Fed and Treasury consulted with many financial firms as they drew up their response — and practically all of Wall Street and much of Main Street benefited — no other company was as front and center. Simply being in touch throughout the government’s planning was good for BlackRock, potentially burnishing its image over the longer run, Birdthistle said. BlackRock would have benefited through “tons of information, tons of secondary financial benefits,” he said. Mnuchin could not be reached for comment. Asked whether top Fed officials discussed program details with Fink before his firm had signed the nondisclosure agreement, the Fed said that Powell and Randal Quarles, a Fed vice chair who also appears in the emails, “have no recollection of discussing the terms of either facility with Mr. Fink.” “Nor did they have any reason to do so because the Federal Reserve Bank of New York handled the process with great care and transparency,” the central bank added in its statement. Brian Beades, a spokesman for BlackRock, highlighted that the firm had “stringent information barriers in place that ensure separation between BlackRock Financial Markets Advisory and the firm’s investment business” and said it was “proud to have been in a position to assist the Federal Reserve in addressing the severe downturn in financial markets during the depths of the crisis.” The disclosed emails between Fed and BlackRock officials — 11 in all across March and early April — do not make clear whether the company knew about any of the Fed and Treasury programs’ designs or whether they were simply providing market information. Emails indicate that Powell spoke with Fink on March 23, hours after the Fed announced its corporate bond program. “Larry Fink is available to speak today regarding the project you will be working on together,” an email from Fink’s assistant directly to Powell said. “Please let us know if there is a convenient time for you.” “Now is good,” Powell replied. The call does not appear on the Fed chair’s official schedule from last March. Those calendars generally track scheduled events, and may have missed meetings in early 2020 when staffers were frantically working on the market rescue and the Fed was shifting to work from home, a central bank spokesman said. Powell’s calendars did show that he talked to Fink in March, April and May, and he has previously answered questions about those discussions. “I can’t recall exactly what those conversations were, but they would have been about what he is seeing in the markets and things like that, to generally exchanging information,” Powell said at a July 2020 news conference, adding that it wasn’t “very many” conversations. “He’s typically trying to make sure that we are getting good service from the company that he founded and leads.” BlackRock’s connections to Washington are not new. It was a critical player in the 2008 crisis response, when the New York Fed retained the firm’s advisory arm to manage the mortgage assets of the insurance giant American International Group and Bear Stearns. Several former BlackRock employees have been named to top roles in President Joe Biden’s administration, including Brian Deese, who heads the White House National Economic Council, and Wally Adeyemo, who was Fink’s chief of staff and is now the No. 2 official at the Treasury. The firm has grown rapidly: Its assets under management swelled from $1.3 trillion in early 2009 to $7.4 trillion in 2019. By the end of last year, they were $8.7 trillion. As it expanded, it has stepped up its lobbying. In 2004, BlackRock Inc. registered two lobbyists and spent less than $200,000 on its efforts. By 2019 it had 20 lobbyists and spent nearly $2.5 million, though that declined slightly last year, based on OpenSecrets data. Campaign contributions tied to the firm also jumped, touching $1.7 million in 2020 (80% to Democrats, 20% to Republicans) from next to nothing as recently as 2004. In March 2020, as some of BlackRock’s own offerings were being rocked at the pandemic’s onset in the United States, the firm reached out to Powell and Quarles, the emails show. In one or two cases, BlackRock appears to have had phone calls with Quarles. In others, Powell and Quarles did not reply, based on the released records. The firm’s representatives also talked to Treasury policymakers other than Mnuchin in March, the emails show. One former official said such calls were part of routine information-gathering from a big market participant at a time when markets were rapidly falling apart. BlackRock operates in short-term debt markets that came under intense stress as people and companies scrambled to move all of their holdings into cash. And problems were brewing in the corporate debt market, including in exchange-traded funds, which track bundles of corporate debt and other assets but trade like stocks. Corporate bonds were difficult to trade and near impossible to issue in mid-March 2020. Prices on some high-grade corporate debt ETFs, including one of BlackRock’s, were out of whack relative to the values of the underlying assets, which is unusual. People could still pull their money from ETFs, which both the industry and several outside academics have heralded as a sign of their resiliency. But investors would have had to take a financial hit to do so, relative to the quoted value of the underlying bonds. That could have bruised the product’s reputation in the eyes of some retail savers. “This was the first time that ETFs came under stress in a really systemic way,” said Gregg Gelzinis, associate director for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress. The Fed’s programs helped to turn that around. The central bank supported the corporate bond market on March 23, 2020, by pledging to buy both already issued debt and new bonds. The program for existing bonds promised to also buy ETFs, because they are a quick way to get access to a wide swath of the market. The bond market and fund recovery was nearly instant. When the New York Fed retained BlackRock’s advisory arm to make the purchases, it rapidly disclosed details of those contracts to the public. The firm did the program cheaply for the government, waiving fees for exchange-traded fund buying and rebating fees from its own iShares ETFs back to the New York Fed. The Fed has explained the decision to hire the advisory side of the house in terms of practicality. “We hired BlackRock for their expertise in these markets,” Powell has since said in defense of the rapid move. “It was done very quickly due to the urgency and need for their expertise.”

Top US officials consulted with BlackRock as markets melted down

SAN FRANCISCO — In 2009, Shamir Karkal and several colleagues struggled to raise money for a banking startup, Simple. Most of the 70 venture capital firms they met over the course of a year did not see the point of the idea, he said. The few that did thought it would fail.

By last year, things had changed. When Karkal set out to raise funding for his new financial technology startup, Sila, which makes regulatory compliance software, he garnered $5 million in a few months with a fraction of the pitches. He said he was frustrated it did not happen even faster.

“I know folks in the space who raised rounds in less than one week,” he said.

Sila is one of thousands of financial technology startups riding an investor frenzy driven by a growing realization that Big Finance is ripe for a tech makeover. When the pandemic forced businesses to speed up their usage of digital tools, including e-commerce and online banking, the demand for what is known as fintech exploded.

Now startups with names like Blend, Brex and Dave that provide decidedly unglamorous banking, lending and payment processing offerings are hot tickets. That was punctuated this month when Stripe, a payments company, raised $600 million in a financing that valued it at $95 billion, the highest ever for a private startup in the United States.

Financial technology companies are also making a splash on the stock market. On March 23, Robinhood, a stock trading app popular with young adults, filed for an initial public offering. And Coinbase, a cryptocurrency startup, is scheduled to go public in the next few weeks in what could be a $100 billion listing.

Even tiny financial startups that have not formally introduced their products — such as Zeller, which will offer banking services to businesses; and Sivo, which is building lending software — have raised millions of dollars and been valued at nine-digit sums.

In total, venture capital investors poured $44.4 billion into financial technology startups last year, up from $1.1 billion in 2009, according to PitchBook, which tracks private financings.

Many investors are making bold predictions that these startups will upend big banks, established credit card providers — and in some cases, the entire financial system.

“The banks are extremely vulnerable” because they have not kept up with what customers expect, said Mark Goldberg, an investor at the venture capital firm Index Ventures. He predicted $1 trillion of market value could transfer from old guard financial institutions to tech companies over the next two decades.

“It’s what Amazon did to offline retail,” he said. “It’s just playing out 10 years later in fintech right now.”

The financial technology startups that are riding the boom run the gamut. They provide services including checking accounts, mortgages, insurance, investing, payment processing and cryptocurrencies.

Many are capitalizing on people’s long-simmering distrust of the big banks, especially after the 2008 financial crisis. Often, the startups offer slick and easy-to-use apps, no physical branches and low or no fees. And they are building on people’s growing familiarity over the past decade with tech tools and digital payments, a shift that has accelerated in the pandemic.

Just as cheap cloud computing and smartphones once enabled a wave of new app startups, the financial technology sector has developed its own set of building blocks, allowing new companies to spring up faster.

One of the building-block companies is Stripe. Founded in 2010, Stripe started out by offering to process payments for small businesses and startups. By 2018, it was worth $20 billion and had begun investing in other startups.

Stripe now processes hundreds of billions of dollars in payments a year, has expanded to larger customers including Salesforce and Booking.com, and has made more than 30 investments in other fintech startups.

“We are in a hypergrowth industry and within that, the company itself is experiencing hypergrowth,” Dhivya Suryadevara, Stripe’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.

Domm Holland, chief executive of Fast, an e-commerce checkout software startup, said Stripe sped up his company’s progress. Customers who use Stripe to accept online payments can then use Fast’s software for their checkout process.

“If Stripe didn’t exist today, we would first have to build Stripe,” Holland said. “That’s a lot of work. They’ve already done that.”

Last year, as Fast’s business grew in the pandemic, investors began messaging Holland daily asking to invest in the company. “I have people LinkedIn messaging and emailing, just offering, ‘Take $5 million at any valuation you like,’” he said. “It is a bizarre world to live in.”

He ended up raising $102 million for Fast in January. Stripe was one of the main investors in the financing.

Other companies that play similar “building block” roles in the financial technology boom include Affirm, which offers lending and went public this year; Shopify, which enables e-commerce transactions; and Plaid, which helps apps connect with bank accounts.

“The infrastructure has gone to a whole other level,” said CJ MacDonald, founder of Step, a debit card provider aimed at teenagers. Introduced in September, Step quickly reached 1 million customers, partly from endorsements from social media influencers like Charli D’Amelio.

In December, Step raised $50 million in funding. The company was not looking for more money, MacDonald said. But investors started calling as soon as the app joined the top-downloaded finance app list shortly after it was released. The money came together in a matter of weeks, he said.

Investors are even clamoring to buy into broken deals. Plaid, which had agreed to sell itself to Visa for $5.6 billion last year, saw the deal unravel in January after facing antitrust scrutiny. Now the fast-growing company is in talks with investors to raise funding at a valuation near $15 billion, said two people with knowledge of the company who spoke on the condition they not be identified because the discussions are confidential. The Information earlier reported Plaid’s funding talks.

Sheel Mohnot, an investor at Better Tomorrow Ventures, said Plaid’s sale price to Visa was viewed as “so amazing” at the time. But now, with multiple fintech companies approaching $100 billion valuations, it looks low.

Some caution that the excitement has gotten far ahead of reality.

Robert Le, an analyst at PitchBook, pointed to the valuation of Affirm, which has a market capitalization of $20 billion, or roughly 40 times its annual revenue. That is significantly higher than the value that investors typically assign to blue-chip financial services companies. American Express, for example, trades at just three times its annual revenue.

“I think it’s a little irrational,” Le said. “Over the long haul, some of these companies will have to come down.”

Some of the startups have already hit growing pains. Chime, a banking startup, had a series of outages in 2019, leaving millions of customers with no access to their money for hours. Some Coinbase customers have said they were locked out of their accounts or experienced thefts of their money. And Robinhood faces nearly 50 lawsuits and multiple regulatory investigations after it halted trading for some stocks during a frenzy in “meme” stocks in January.

Leigh Drogen, chief executive of Estimize, an investment data startup, said the hiccups, high valuations and irrational behaviors have not canceled out all the progress in fintech.

“There are a lot of very, very real things, and then there’s some insanity,” he said. “That happens in every boom.”

SAN FRANCISCO — In 2009, Shamir Karkal and several colleagues struggled to raise money for a banking startup, Simple. Most of the 70 venture capital firms they met over the course of a year did not see the point of the idea, he said.

SAN FRANCISCO — In 2009, Shamir Karkal and several colleagues struggled to raise money for a banking startup, Simple. Most of the 70 venture capital firms they met over the course of a year did not see the point of the idea, he said. The few that did thought it would fail. By last year, things had changed. When Karkal set out to raise funding for his new financial technology startup, Sila, which makes regulatory compliance software, he garnered $5 million in a few months with a fraction of the pitches. He said he was frustrated it did not happen even faster. “I know folks in the space who raised rounds in less than one week,” he said. Sila is one of thousands of financial technology startups riding an investor frenzy driven by a growing realization that Big Finance is ripe for a tech makeover. When the pandemic forced businesses to speed up their usage of digital tools, including e-commerce and online banking, the demand for what is known as fintech exploded. Now startups with names like Blend, Brex and Dave that provide decidedly unglamorous banking, lending and payment processing offerings are hot tickets. That was punctuated this month when Stripe, a payments company, raised $600 million in a financing that valued it at $95 billion, the highest ever for a private startup in the United States. Financial technology companies are also making a splash on the stock market. On March 23, Robinhood, a stock trading app popular with young adults, filed for an initial public offering. And Coinbase, a cryptocurrency startup, is scheduled to go public in the next few weeks in what could be a $100 billion listing. Even tiny financial startups that have not formally introduced their products — such as Zeller, which will offer banking services to businesses; and Sivo, which is building lending software — have raised millions of dollars and been valued at nine-digit sums. In total, venture capital investors poured $44.4 billion into financial technology startups last year, up from $1.1 billion in 2009, according to PitchBook, which tracks private financings. Many investors are making bold predictions that these startups will upend big banks, established credit card providers — and in some cases, the entire financial system. “The banks are extremely vulnerable” because they have not kept up with what customers expect, said Mark Goldberg, an investor at the venture capital firm Index Ventures. He predicted $1 trillion of market value could transfer from old guard financial institutions to tech companies over the next two decades. “It’s what Amazon did to offline retail,” he said. “It’s just playing out 10 years later in fintech right now.” The financial technology startups that are riding the boom run the gamut. They provide services including checking accounts, mortgages, insurance, investing, payment processing and cryptocurrencies. Many are capitalizing on people’s long-simmering distrust of the big banks, especially after the 2008 financial crisis. Often, the startups offer slick and easy-to-use apps, no physical branches and low or no fees. And they are building on people’s growing familiarity over the past decade with tech tools and digital payments, a shift that has accelerated in the pandemic. Just as cheap cloud computing and smartphones once enabled a wave of new app startups, the financial technology sector has developed its own set of building blocks, allowing new companies to spring up faster. One of the building-block companies is Stripe. Founded in 2010, Stripe started out by offering to process payments for small businesses and startups. By 2018, it was worth $20 billion and had begun investing in other startups. Stripe now processes hundreds of billions of dollars in payments a year, has expanded to larger customers including Salesforce and Booking.com, and has made more than 30 investments in other fintech startups. “We are in a hypergrowth industry and within that, the company itself is experiencing hypergrowth,” Dhivya Suryadevara, Stripe’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. Domm Holland, chief executive of Fast, an e-commerce checkout software startup, said Stripe sped up his company’s progress. Customers who use Stripe to accept online payments can then use Fast’s software for their checkout process. “If Stripe didn’t exist today, we would first have to build Stripe,” Holland said. “That’s a lot of work. They’ve already done that.” Last year, as Fast’s business grew in the pandemic, investors began messaging Holland daily asking to invest in the company. “I have people LinkedIn messaging and emailing, just offering, ‘Take $5 million at any valuation you like,’” he said. “It is a bizarre world to live in.” He ended up raising $102 million for Fast in January. Stripe was one of the main investors in the financing. Other companies that play similar “building block” roles in the financial technology boom include Affirm, which offers lending and went public this year; Shopify, which enables e-commerce transactions; and Plaid, which helps apps connect with bank accounts. “The infrastructure has gone to a whole other level,” said CJ MacDonald, founder of Step, a debit card provider aimed at teenagers. Introduced in September, Step quickly reached 1 million customers, partly from endorsements from social media influencers like Charli D’Amelio. In December, Step raised $50 million in funding. The company was not looking for more money, MacDonald said. But investors started calling as soon as the app joined the top-downloaded finance app list shortly after it was released. The money came together in a matter of weeks, he said. Investors are even clamoring to buy into broken deals. Plaid, which had agreed to sell itself to Visa for $5.6 billion last year, saw the deal unravel in January after facing antitrust scrutiny. Now the fast-growing company is in talks with investors to raise funding at a valuation near $15 billion, said two people with knowledge of the company who spoke on the condition they not be identified because the discussions are confidential. The Information earlier reported Plaid’s funding talks. Sheel Mohnot, an investor at Better Tomorrow Ventures, said Plaid’s sale price to Visa was viewed as “so amazing” at the time. But now, with multiple fintech companies approaching $100 billion valuations, it looks low. Some caution that the excitement has gotten far ahead of reality. Robert Le, an analyst at PitchBook, pointed to the valuation of Affirm, which has a market capitalization of $20 billion, or roughly 40 times its annual revenue. That is significantly higher than the value that investors typically assign to blue-chip financial services companies. American Express, for example, trades at just three times its annual revenue. “I think it’s a little irrational,” Le said. “Over the long haul, some of these companies will have to come down.” Some of the startups have already hit growing pains. Chime, a banking startup, had a series of outages in 2019, leaving millions of customers with no access to their money for hours. Some Coinbase customers have said they were locked out of their accounts or experienced thefts of their money. And Robinhood faces nearly 50 lawsuits and multiple regulatory investigations after it halted trading for some stocks during a frenzy in “meme” stocks in January. Leigh Drogen, chief executive of Estimize, an investment data startup, said the hiccups, high valuations and irrational behaviors have not canceled out all the progress in fintech. “There are a lot of very, very real things, and then there’s some insanity,” he said. “That happens in every boom.”

The startup enemies of Wall Street are booming

Arturo Di Modica, the sculptor of Wall Street`s "Charging Bull" statue has died in his home town of Vittoria, Sicily, Italian media reported on Saturday, citing friends of the Italian artist.

Di Modica, who recently turned 80, had been fighting cancer for many years, La Repubblica daily said.

Located in Bowling Green at the heart of Manhattan`s financial district, the 7,100-pound sculpture, Di Modica`s most famous, became a symbol of New York City.

Originally appearing as guerrilla art, it was unofficially installed in front of the New York Stock Exchange by Di Modica in 1989 and intended to convey the fighting spirit of the United States and of New York.

After police seized the sculpture, public outcry led the city`s parks department to reinstall it days later at its current location nearby.

Arturo Di Modica, the sculptor of Wall Street`s "Charging Bull" statue has died in his home town of Vittoria, Sicily, Italian media reported on Saturday, citing friends of the Italian artist.

Arturo Di Modica, the sculptor of Wall Street`s "Charging Bull" statue has died in his home town of Vittoria, Sicily, Italian media reported on Saturday, citing friends of the Italian artist. Di Modica, who recently turned 80, had been fighting cancer for many years, La Repubblica daily said. Located in Bowling Green at the heart of Manhattan`s financial district, the 7,100-pound sculpture, Di Modica`s most famous, became a symbol of New York City. Originally appearing as guerrilla art, it was unofficially installed in front of the New York Stock Exchange by Di Modica in 1989 and intended to convey the fighting spirit of the United States and of New York. After police seized the sculpture, public outcry led the city`s parks department to reinstall it days later at its current location nearby.

Wall Street Charging Bull sculptor Arturo Di Modica dies aged 80

A young day trader who went by the screen name Roaring Kitty and found himself at the center of the GameStop stock trading frenzy will make his first public appearance at a congressional hearing Thursday.

The trader, Keith Gill, was on a list released Friday of the panel that will appear in front of the House Committee on Financial Services as it examines the circumstances around the wild spikes in prices of GameStop and other so-called meme stocks.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/how-gamestop-missed-out-on-capitalising-on-the-reddit-rally-362984">How GameStop missed out on capitalising on the Reddit rally</a>

Gill is the only non-chief executive who will appear at the event, titled “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media and Retail Investors Collide.”

The other people testifying that day will be Vlad Tenev, CEO of online broker Robinhood; Kenneth C. Griffin, CEO of trading firm Citadel; Gabe Plotkin, CEO of hedge fund Melvin Capital Management; and Steve Huffman, CEO of social media company Reddit.

Gill lingered in anonymity until he was outed last month as the person behind Roaring Kitty. Under that screen name, Gill shot dozens of videos from his home in Massachusetts promoting the GameStop stock.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hbo-to-develop-film-chronicling-the-gamestop-wall-street-incident-361954">HBO to develop film chronicling the GameStop-Wall Street incident</a>

He built up a large holding of GameStop shares and became a hero among the online crowd that gathered on Reddit to talk about the stock. But his endorsement has drawn attention from regulators in his home state.

Many of these traders bought and sold stocks on the Robinhood trading app. But Robinhood and other brokers effectively blocked trading of GameStop on its platform as the stock became the most actively traded on Wall Street, with its share price up as much as 1,700% in January.

The spike caused huge losses for the hedge funds that had made big bets against GameStop. Melvin lost 53% in January, a person familiar with the matter said, and had to ask for billions of dollars from other hedge funds, including Citadel, to stay afloat.

Robinhood’s decision to block trading infuriated its customers and drew bipartisan condemnation, with the unlikely combination of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ted Cruz agreeing on the issue.

Robinhood raised $3.4 billion in five days to ensure it had enough money to cover the trading on its platforms. Even so, the platform continued to limit trading of GameStop and other so-called meme stocks, such as AMC Entertainment, for days.

A young day trader who went by the screen name Roaring Kitty and found himself at the center of the GameStop stock trading frenzy will make his first public appearance at a congressional hearing Thursday.

A young day trader who went by the screen name Roaring Kitty and found himself at the center of the GameStop stock trading frenzy will make his first public appearance at a congressional hearing Thursday. The trader, Keith Gill, was on a list released Friday of the panel that will appear in front of the House Committee on Financial Services as it examines the circumstances around the wild spikes in prices of GameStop and other so-called meme stocks. Also read| How GameStop missed out on capitalising on the Reddit rally Gill is the only non-chief executive who will appear at the event, titled “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media and Retail Investors Collide.” The other people testifying that day will be Vlad Tenev, CEO of online broker Robinhood; Kenneth C. Griffin, CEO of trading firm Citadel; Gabe Plotkin, CEO of hedge fund Melvin Capital Management; and Steve Huffman, CEO of social media company Reddit. Gill lingered in anonymity until he was outed last month as the person behind Roaring Kitty. Under that screen name, Gill shot dozens of videos from his home in Massachusetts promoting the GameStop stock. Also read| HBO to develop film chronicling the GameStop-Wall Street incident He built up a large holding of GameStop shares and became a hero among the online crowd that gathered on Reddit to talk about the stock. But his endorsement has drawn attention from regulators in his home state. Many of these traders bought and sold stocks on the Robinhood trading app. But Robinhood and other brokers effectively blocked trading of GameStop on its platform as the stock became the most actively traded on Wall Street, with its share price up as much as 1,700% in January. The spike caused huge losses for the hedge funds that had made big bets against GameStop. Melvin lost 53% in January, a person familiar with the matter said, and had to ask for billions of dollars from other hedge funds, including Citadel, to stay afloat. Robinhood’s decision to block trading infuriated its customers and drew bipartisan condemnation, with the unlikely combination of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ted Cruz agreeing on the issue. Robinhood raised $3.4 billion in five days to ensure it had enough money to cover the trading on its platforms. Even so, the platform continued to limit trading of GameStop and other so-called meme stocks, such as AMC Entertainment, for days.

Reddit’s ‘Roaring Kitty’ will speak at GameStop hearing

Wall Street in the US reached all-time closing highs on Monday as investor optimism was stoked by prospects of a speedier economic recovery from the global health crisis, it was driven by increased stimulus and an accelerated vaccine rollout as well.

World Business Watch: Wall Street sets record closing highs on stimulus hopes

A film describing the&nbsp;GameStop-Wall Street incident is in development at HBO.&nbsp;

The film is described as exploring how a populist uprising of social media day traders beat Wall Street at their own game, turning the stock market upside down and shaking the financial world to its core.&nbsp;According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'Billions'&nbsp;co-creator and financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jason Blum, and former HBO Films head Len Amato are executive&nbsp;producing the project. The untitled show will follow the stock saga where hedge fund managers had bet on GameStop to lose a lot of value, but several scores of people in the wallstreetbets Reddit forum exchanged tips and bought the company's shares. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/how-gamestop-stocks-surge-exposed-wall-street-elites-360171">How GameStop stocks surge exposed Wall Street elites</a>

This is the latest onscreen project set up to detail the ongoing stock market saga around GameStop. A feature documentary was announced recently, while earlier this week a feature film adaptation from writer Mark Boal ('The Hurt Locker,'&nbsp;'Zero Dark Thirty') was announced, with Noah Centineo set to star in a major role. MGM also recently picked up the rights to author Ben Mezrich’s book proposal, 'The Antisocial Network,'&nbsp;which also dives into the Wall Street fiasco. Grand Central Publishing plans to publish the book in the fall, according to Variety. 
 
<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/four-things-to-know-about-the-gamestop-insanity-359947?fbclid=IwAR1VWpWmbdqf9oIvDYuM_jIuxW8ea4kIbLNkV96mQNS_oKBmVVA3YTeJrEw">Four things to know about the GameStop insanity</a>

Sorkin is the co-creator of the Showtime drama “Billions,” which is set in the world of hedge funds. He is also the author of the 2008 financial crisis book “Too Big to Fail,” and co-produced a film adaptation previously for HBO Films, which was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards.

Amato is the former head of HBO Films. During his time there, HBO Films won 43 Emmy Awards and 12 Golden Globes, winning the Outstanding Made For Television Movie Emmy in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Amato also developed and executive produced 2008’s “Recount,” which garnered 3 Emmy Awards including Best Made for Television Movie, and resulted in an Emmy for Amato as executive producer.

 
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A film describing the GameStop-Wall Street incident is in development at HBO. The film is described as exploring how a populist uprising of social media day traders beat Wall Street at their own game, turning the stock market upside down and shaking the financial world to its core.

A film describing the GameStop-Wall Street incident is in development at HBO. The film is described as exploring how a populist uprising of social media day traders beat Wall Street at their own game, turning the stock market upside down and shaking the financial world to its core. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'Billions' co-creator and financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jason Blum, and former HBO Films head Len Amato are executive producing the project. The untitled show will follow the stock saga where hedge fund managers had bet on GameStop to lose a lot of value, but several scores of people in the wallstreetbets Reddit forum exchanged tips and bought the company's shares. How GameStop stocks surge exposed Wall Street elites This is the latest onscreen project set up to detail the ongoing stock market saga around GameStop. A feature documentary was announced recently, while earlier this week a feature film adaptation from writer Mark Boal ('The Hurt Locker,' 'Zero Dark Thirty') was announced, with Noah Centineo set to star in a major role. MGM also recently picked up the rights to author Ben Mezrich’s book proposal, 'The Antisocial Network,' which also dives into the Wall Street fiasco. Grand Central Publishing plans to publish the book in the fall, according to Variety. Four things to know about the GameStop insanity Sorkin is the co-creator of the Showtime drama “Billions,” which is set in the world of hedge funds. He is also the author of the 2008 financial crisis book “Too Big to Fail,” and co-produced a film adaptation previously for HBO Films, which was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards. Amato is the former head of HBO Films. During his time there, HBO Films won 43 Emmy Awards and 12 Golden Globes, winning the Outstanding Made For Television Movie Emmy in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. Amato also developed and executive produced 2008’s “Recount,” which garnered 3 Emmy Awards including Best Made for Television Movie, and resulted in an Emmy for Amato as executive producer.

HBO to develop film chronicling the GameStop-Wall Street incident

It is Occupy Wall Street, the sequel. It is elements of the Tea Party, again. It is Bernie bros and MAGA maniacs.

The hordes of young traders who this week fueled a spectacular surge in the value of video game retailer GameStop may lack a unified political ideology. But they have forced a reckoning on Wall Street and caught the attention of leaders in Washington who recognize a populist uprising when they see one.

Wall Street has long been an easy villain for many on Capitol Hill. But the rush to side with speculative traders by both Democrats and Republicans reflects the broad recognition of the impulses that have driven U.S. politics in recent years, fueling both the ascension of President Donald Trump and a liberal wing of the Democratic Party that grew stronger in opposition.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trading-curbs-reverse-gamestop-rally-angering-upstart-traders-360011">Trading curbs reverse GameStop rally, angering upstart traders</a>

The decision by online brokerage app Robinhood to impose trading limits as hedge funds were hammered by the wild market fluctuation has prompted the rarest of all political occurrences: bipartisan agreement. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum condemned the move and called for hearings into the decision — among them Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a staunch conservative; and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a standard-bearer of the left. The conservative attorney general of Texas and his progressive counterpart in New York have both initiated inquiries into Robinhood.

“For years, the stock market has been less and less about the value of business and more and more like casino gambling,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who called for increased regulation of Wall Street shortly after the market frenzy over GameStop began this week.

“GameStop is just the latest and most visible example,” she said in an interview Friday. “We need to take this not as a one-off problem but as a systemic problem that requires systemic regulation and enforcement.”

While President Joe Biden defeated Trump with a centrist message of restoring political norms, the trading frenzy this week provided a potent reminder of the strong undercurrent of grievance and institutional distrust in the country. Many believe that will only intensify as the nation wrestles with the economic fallout from a devastating pandemic.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/how-gamestop-stocks-surge-exposed-wall-street-elites-360171">How GameStop stocks surge exposed Wall Street elites</a>

As Wall Street booms, unemployment has hit record highs, with nearly 10 million fewer people holding jobs than at the beginning of last year — a situation that reminds some former officials of the 2008 economic crisis that led to both the Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movements.

“It’s not about Republicans and Democrats,” said Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House Speaker and an ally of Trump. “It’s lots and lots of normal, everyday people who began to figure out they really got ripped off for the last year just like they got ripped off in 2008 and 2009. What you’re seeing is an almost spontaneous cultural reaction in which the little guys and gals are getting together and going after the bigs, so the bigs are having to rig the game in order to survive.”

The reality is more complicated. There is little sign of any central political mission shared by the millions of amateur traders who combined to squeeze at least two hedge funds that bet against the stocks of companies like GameStop and movie chain AMC. One of the originators of the scheme is far from a “little guy,” with the financial resources to have purportedly transformed an initial investment of $53,000 into $48 million. Overall, only about half the country owns any stock at all.

On Reddit, the online message board that helped fuel the surge, few of the mostly young participants frame their flood of investments in clearly partisan terms. Yet many write of being driven by anger over the 2008 financial bailouts that kept the big banks afloat while 10 million Americans lost their homes.

“When that crisis hit our family, we were able to keep our little house, but we lived off of pancake mix, and powdered milk, and beans and rice for a year,” one person identified as ssauronn posted on Reddit. “Your ilk were bailed out and rewarded for terrible and illegal financial decisions that negatively changed the lives of millions.”

Other posters responded with their own stories of economic struggle and political rage.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/gamestop-prompts-surge-in-hyper-rally-after-elon-musks-tweet-359791">GameStop prompts surge in hyper-rally after Elon Musk's tweet</a>

“Forget republican/democrat, left/right... the bankers play both sides and have almost always come out on top,” a poster identified as ChrisFrettJunior wrote, after recounting watching his parents struggle through the 2008 recession.

The decision to bail out the biggest banks and also decline to prosecute any of their top executives led to much of the populist fervor that has driven U.S. politics in the past decade. The Tea Party surged to political prominence in the wake of the $700 billion financial rescue package that passed in 2008, eventually becoming a force that defeated both moderate Republicans and Democrats.

After Republicans won control of the House in 2010, Democrats began to face their own backlash, beginning with Occupy Wall Street — a loose coalition of largely liberal protesters who fueled a national conversation about economic inequality.

These days, political strategists warn, hedge funds, private equity investors and bankers are unlikely to find the same kind of deep support in Washington. Anger over the bailouts fueled the campaigns of political outsiders, creating a Congress that is less receptive to the pleas of Wall Street and far more eager to make use of upheaval to advance their agendas.

“There’s a ton of political currency in holding hedge funds’ feet to the fire from Democrats and Republicans,” said Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist and longtime adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “If you’re sitting on Wall Street looking at this, dismissing people as folks who don’t understand the way that the markets work, I think you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”

For Republicans, the market upheaval was a referendum on elitism. Democrats saw pure corporate greed and the need for greater regulation.

“Big Hedge, with outposts in South Hedge-i-stan (Wall Street) and North Hedge-i-stan (Greenwich, CT), has made trillions shorting great American companies facing a rough patch,” said Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb. “Now they are getting a comeuppance from flash mobs of day traders and are paying dearly.”

Most of the ire this week was directed at Robinhood, a brokerage app catering to younger investors, which suddenly limited trading in GameStop, AMC and other stocks. Lawmakers argued that the app was protecting hedge funds and other big investors over retail investors. Robinhood said the additional restrictions were necessary to comply with government financial requirements.

Yet even centrists like Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who is poised to become the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, expressed concerns about the lack of transparency in the online company’s decision-making.

“I find it disturbing when retail investors who are simply seeking to buy a stock are frozen out of the market,” Toomey said in a statement. “Retail investors should be free to purchase even highly speculative stocks, just as hedge funds should be free to short them.”

Although politicians from both sides joined calls for greater scrutiny, it was hardly a kumbaya moment for the two parties.

After Cruz tweeted that he agreed with Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a probe into Robinhood’s action, she quickly disavowed any support from Cruz, who was a prominent backer of Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.

“I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out,” she responded. “Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.”

Cruz condemned her response as “partisan anger” that’s “not healthy for our country,” drawing another response from Ocasio-Cortez, while his allies in the House called for an apology.

The uproar over GameStop and Robinhood comes at a challenging time for the Biden administration, which took office promising to restore a sense of calm to the country. The Senate Banking Committee has yet to schedule a hearing to confirm Gary Gensler, Biden’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaving the agency with an acting chair for the indefinite future. On Friday the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, deferred questions on the issue.

“It’s a good reminder, though, that the stock market isn’t the only measure of the health of our economy,” she said, an apparent reference to Trump’s persistent fixation on stock prices during his tenure. Biden has not yet commented on the issue.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who represents a district that includes Silicon Valley, said this week’s events should alert lawmakers to the need to tighten financial regulations and increase transparency and equity.

He said the wide range of Republicans and Democrats who have spoken out are a reflection of “a real populist anger in this country.”

“Some people go get fancy degrees, know the right people and spend all day in front of their computers short selling, Khanna said. “And it’s a form of manipulation that has hurt our country. That has enriched the few at the expense of many Americans.”

Although many Americans own no stock at all, the sense that Wall Street has gamed a rigged system cuts across demographic barriers, he argued.

“I think this has been bubbling up since the Wall Street crash of 2008,” Khanna said. “And it’s coming to a boiling point.”

It is Occupy Wall Street, the sequel. It is elements of the Tea Party, again. It is Bernie bros and MAGA maniacs. The hordes of young traders who this week fueled a spectacular surge in the value of video game retailer GameStop may lack a unified political ideology.

It is Occupy Wall Street, the sequel. It is elements of the Tea Party, again. It is Bernie bros and MAGA maniacs. The hordes of young traders who this week fueled a spectacular surge in the value of video game retailer GameStop may lack a unified political ideology. But they have forced a reckoning on Wall Street and caught the attention of leaders in Washington who recognize a populist uprising when they see one. Wall Street has long been an easy villain for many on Capitol Hill. But the rush to side with speculative traders by both Democrats and Republicans reflects the broad recognition of the impulses that have driven U.S. politics in recent years, fueling both the ascension of President Donald Trump and a liberal wing of the Democratic Party that grew stronger in opposition. Also read| Trading curbs reverse GameStop rally, angering upstart traders The decision by online brokerage app Robinhood to impose trading limits as hedge funds were hammered by the wild market fluctuation has prompted the rarest of all political occurrences: bipartisan agreement. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum condemned the move and called for hearings into the decision — among them Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a staunch conservative; and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a standard-bearer of the left. The conservative attorney general of Texas and his progressive counterpart in New York have both initiated inquiries into Robinhood. “For years, the stock market has been less and less about the value of business and more and more like casino gambling,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who called for increased regulation of Wall Street shortly after the market frenzy over GameStop began this week. “GameStop is just the latest and most visible example,” she said in an interview Friday. “We need to take this not as a one-off problem but as a systemic problem that requires systemic regulation and enforcement.” While President Joe Biden defeated Trump with a centrist message of restoring political norms, the trading frenzy this week provided a potent reminder of the strong undercurrent of grievance and institutional distrust in the country. Many believe that will only intensify as the nation wrestles with the economic fallout from a devastating pandemic. Also read| How GameStop stocks surge exposed Wall Street elites As Wall Street booms, unemployment has hit record highs, with nearly 10 million fewer people holding jobs than at the beginning of last year — a situation that reminds some former officials of the 2008 economic crisis that led to both the Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party movements. “It’s not about Republicans and Democrats,” said Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House Speaker and an ally of Trump. “It’s lots and lots of normal, everyday people who began to figure out they really got ripped off for the last year just like they got ripped off in 2008 and 2009. What you’re seeing is an almost spontaneous cultural reaction in which the little guys and gals are getting together and going after the bigs, so the bigs are having to rig the game in order to survive.” The reality is more complicated. There is little sign of any central political mission shared by the millions of amateur traders who combined to squeeze at least two hedge funds that bet against the stocks of companies like GameStop and movie chain AMC. One of the originators of the scheme is far from a “little guy,” with the financial resources to have purportedly transformed an initial investment of $53,000 into $48 million. Overall, only about half the country owns any stock at all. On Reddit, the online message board that helped fuel the surge, few of the mostly young participants frame their flood of investments in clearly partisan terms. Yet many write of being driven by anger over the 2008 financial bailouts that kept the big banks afloat while 10 million Americans lost their homes. “When that crisis hit our family, we were able to keep our little house, but we lived off of pancake mix, and powdered milk, and beans and rice for a year,” one person identified as ssauronn posted on Reddit. “Your ilk were bailed out and rewarded for terrible and illegal financial decisions that negatively changed the lives of millions.” Other posters responded with their own stories of economic struggle and political rage. Also read| GameStop prompts surge in hyper-rally after Elon Musk's tweet “Forget republican/democrat, left/right... the bankers play both sides and have almost always come out on top,” a poster identified as ChrisFrettJunior wrote, after recounting watching his parents struggle through the 2008 recession. The decision to bail out the biggest banks and also decline to prosecute any of their top executives led to much of the populist fervor that has driven U.S. politics in the past decade. The Tea Party surged to political prominence in the wake of the $700 billion financial rescue package that passed in 2008, eventually becoming a force that defeated both moderate Republicans and Democrats. After Republicans won control of the House in 2010, Democrats began to face their own backlash, beginning with Occupy Wall Street — a loose coalition of largely liberal protesters who fueled a national conversation about economic inequality. These days, political strategists warn, hedge funds, private equity investors and bankers are unlikely to find the same kind of deep support in Washington. Anger over the bailouts fueled the campaigns of political outsiders, creating a Congress that is less receptive to the pleas of Wall Street and far more eager to make use of upheaval to advance their agendas. “There’s a ton of political currency in holding hedge funds’ feet to the fire from Democrats and Republicans,” said Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist and longtime adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “If you’re sitting on Wall Street looking at this, dismissing people as folks who don’t understand the way that the markets work, I think you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.” For Republicans, the market upheaval was a referendum on elitism. Democrats saw pure corporate greed and the need for greater regulation. “Big Hedge, with outposts in South Hedge-i-stan (Wall Street) and North Hedge-i-stan (Greenwich, CT), has made trillions shorting great American companies facing a rough patch,” said Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb. “Now they are getting a comeuppance from flash mobs of day traders and are paying dearly.” Most of the ire this week was directed at Robinhood, a brokerage app catering to younger investors, which suddenly limited trading in GameStop, AMC and other stocks. Lawmakers argued that the app was protecting hedge funds and other big investors over retail investors. Robinhood said the additional restrictions were necessary to comply with government financial requirements. Yet even centrists like Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who is poised to become the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, expressed concerns about the lack of transparency in the online company’s decision-making. “I find it disturbing when retail investors who are simply seeking to buy a stock are frozen out of the market,” Toomey said in a statement. “Retail investors should be free to purchase even highly speculative stocks, just as hedge funds should be free to short them.” Although politicians from both sides joined calls for greater scrutiny, it was hardly a kumbaya moment for the two parties. After Cruz tweeted that he agreed with Ocasio-Cortez’s call for a probe into Robinhood’s action, she quickly disavowed any support from Cruz, who was a prominent backer of Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. “I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out,” she responded. “Happy to work w/ almost any other GOP that aren’t trying to get me killed. In the meantime if you want to help, you can resign.” Cruz condemned her response as “partisan anger” that’s “not healthy for our country,” drawing another response from Ocasio-Cortez, while his allies in the House called for an apology. The uproar over GameStop and Robinhood comes at a challenging time for the Biden administration, which took office promising to restore a sense of calm to the country. The Senate Banking Committee has yet to schedule a hearing to confirm Gary Gensler, Biden’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaving the agency with an acting chair for the indefinite future. On Friday the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, deferred questions on the issue. “It’s a good reminder, though, that the stock market isn’t the only measure of the health of our economy,” she said, an apparent reference to Trump’s persistent fixation on stock prices during his tenure. Biden has not yet commented on the issue. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who represents a district that includes Silicon Valley, said this week’s events should alert lawmakers to the need to tighten financial regulations and increase transparency and equity. He said the wide range of Republicans and Democrats who have spoken out are a reflection of “a real populist anger in this country.” “Some people go get fancy degrees, know the right people and spend all day in front of their computers short selling, Khanna said. “And it’s a form of manipulation that has hurt our country. That has enriched the few at the expense of many Americans.” Although many Americans own no stock at all, the sense that Wall Street has gamed a rigged system cuts across demographic barriers, he argued. “I think this has been bubbling up since the Wall Street crash of 2008,” Khanna said. “And it’s coming to a boiling point.”

Lawmakers look at GameStop furor and see a populist issue to seize

The shares of GameStop soared by 2000% this month - when small investors on an internet forum decided to teach Wall Street a lesson. WION's Palki tells you how experienced traders were outplayed by amateurs in their own game.

Gravitas: How small investors taught Wall Street a lesson

Online broker Robinhood, one of the hottest venues in this week's retail-trading frenzy, said it put temporary buying restrictions on a small number of securities as clearing house-mandated deposit requirements for equities increased ten-fold.

"....the required amount we had to deposit with the clearing house was so large, with individual volatile securities accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in deposit requirements - that we had to take steps to limit buying in those volatile securities to ensure we could comfortably meet our requirements," it said in a blog post late on Friday.&nbsp;

Meanwhile,&nbsp;Texas's attorney general announced on Friday a probe into&nbsp;Robinhood&nbsp;and 12 other online stock exchanges after they suspended trading on GameStop and other volatile equities.

Ken Paxton, the top prosecutor for the country's second-most-populous state, sent a civil investigative demand to the companies, the latest sign of escalating scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers over the trade suspensions. Trading of GameStop resumed Friday on&nbsp;Robinhood.&nbsp;

Paxton echoed criticism from across the political spectrum of the trading halts, which he said "stinks of corruption" and appears to show coordination among powerful interests.

US media reported the company had also raised $1 billion from its investors to help it stay afloat and allow its customers to continue trading, though on Thursday&nbsp;Robinhood&nbsp;chief Vlad Tenev told CNBC the company was not facing a liquidity crunch.

Robinhood&nbsp;needs to maintain a certain amount of funds in the financial institutions that facilitate orders made on its platforms, and when it sees increased demand, that liquidity needs to increase as well.

Robinhood's fee-free and simple-to-use app has made it popular with a new generation of small-time traders and its restrictions on Thursday drew a heavy backlash from high-profile politicians and celebrities.

Retail investors using Robinhood and other apps drove the so-called "Reddit rally" that pushed up shares of GameStop Corp and other companies championed on social media platforms including Reddit, resulting in heavy losses for big hedge funds that had shorted the shares.

Online broker Robinhood, one of the hottest venues in this week's retail-trading frenzy, said it put temporary buying restrictions on a small number of securities as clearing house-mandated deposit requirements for equities increased ten-fold.

Online broker Robinhood, one of the hottest venues in this week's retail-trading frenzy, said it put temporary buying restrictions on a small number of securities as clearing house-mandated deposit requirements for equities increased ten-fold. "....the required amount we had to deposit with the clearing house was so large, with individual volatile securities accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in deposit requirements - that we had to take steps to limit buying in those volatile securities to ensure we could comfortably meet our requirements," it said in a blog post late on Friday. Meanwhile, Texas's attorney general announced on Friday a probe into Robinhood and 12 other online stock exchanges after they suspended trading on GameStop and other volatile equities. Ken Paxton, the top prosecutor for the country's second-most-populous state, sent a civil investigative demand to the companies, the latest sign of escalating scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers over the trade suspensions. Trading of GameStop resumed Friday on Robinhood. Paxton echoed criticism from across the political spectrum of the trading halts, which he said "stinks of corruption" and appears to show coordination among powerful interests. US media reported the company had also raised $1 billion from its investors to help it stay afloat and allow its customers to continue trading, though on Thursday Robinhood chief Vlad Tenev told CNBC the company was not facing a liquidity crunch. Robinhood needs to maintain a certain amount of funds in the financial institutions that facilitate orders made on its platforms, and when it sees increased demand, that liquidity needs to increase as well. Robinhood's fee-free and simple-to-use app has made it popular with a new generation of small-time traders and its restrictions on Thursday drew a heavy backlash from high-profile politicians and celebrities. Retail investors using Robinhood and other apps drove the so-called "Reddit rally" that pushed up shares of GameStop Corp and other companies championed on social media platforms including Reddit, resulting in heavy losses for big hedge funds that had shorted the shares.

Robinhood imposes one share buy limit on dozens of stocks amid GameStop scrutiny

GameStop is an American company and is on the verge of bankruptcy, however, its shares suddenly shot up by two thousand per cent in four days not because the company suddenly began doing well.

The astronomical jump was driven by a group of Netizens who were out to teach the bankers at Wall Street a lesson.

On January 25, one share of American company GameStop corp was selling at close to $43, however, on January the price shot up to $469 - a whopping jump of more than two thousand per cent in four days.

GameStop is one of the world's biggest video game retailers but on Wall Street the market for GameStop stock is a battleground between financial elite and small investors which is exactly what some of the major hedge funds wanted to do with GameStop that is bet on the decline of the company to make money.

In other words, selling short but these Wall Street traders got torched by this trade. Short sellers lost more than $5 billion betting against GameStop which includes names like point72 asset management that lost nearly 15 per cent of its fund over this trade.

Andrew Left's Citron capital suffered a loss of 100 per cent over the Gamestop trade, Melvin Capital needed a $2.8 billion injection to save itself. The big traders were defeated at their own game by small traders.

It all began with Wall Street bets an internet forum on Reddit that decided to teach Wall Street a lesson after online traders, mom-and-pop investors and small brokers decided to buy GameStop shares. For many of these traders this was about punishing Wall Street for the financial collapse of 2008.

An army of small investors pushed the stock to record highs leading to a massive jump in Gamestop's market value from $2 billion to $24 billion while the big investors saw the money they bet against GameStop evaporate.

The volatile trading led to high drama forcing the Biden administration and the US Securities and Exchange Commission to start monitoring the situation.

Robinhood, the app used by many of the small investors to buy GameStop shares began blocking buys from fresh purchases. Some American lawmakers have now demanded an investigation into this halt. The bet against GameStop has left Wall Street traders burnt. The entire affair is a reminder that market investments remain a risky business.

GameStop is an American company and is on the verge of bankruptcy, however, its shares suddenly shot up by two thousand per cent in four days not because the company suddenly began doing well.

GameStop is an American company and is on the verge of bankruptcy, however, its shares suddenly shot up by two thousand per cent in four days not because the company suddenly began doing well. The astronomical jump was driven by a group of Netizens who were out to teach the bankers at Wall Street a lesson. On January 25, one share of American company GameStop corp was selling at close to $43, however, on January the price shot up to $469 - a whopping jump of more than two thousand per cent in four days. GameStop is one of the world's biggest video game retailers but on Wall Street the market for GameStop stock is a battleground between financial elite and small investors which is exactly what some of the major hedge funds wanted to do with GameStop that is bet on the decline of the company to make money. In other words, selling short but these Wall Street traders got torched by this trade. Short sellers lost more than $5 billion betting against GameStop which includes names like point72 asset management that lost nearly 15 per cent of its fund over this trade. Andrew Left's Citron capital suffered a loss of 100 per cent over the Gamestop trade, Melvin Capital needed a $2.8 billion injection to save itself. The big traders were defeated at their own game by small traders. It all began with Wall Street bets an internet forum on Reddit that decided to teach Wall Street a lesson after online traders, mom-and-pop investors and small brokers decided to buy GameStop shares. For many of these traders this was about punishing Wall Street for the financial collapse of 2008. An army of small investors pushed the stock to record highs leading to a massive jump in Gamestop's market value from $2 billion to $24 billion while the big investors saw the money they bet against GameStop evaporate. The volatile trading led to high drama forcing the Biden administration and the US Securities and Exchange Commission to start monitoring the situation. Robinhood, the app used by many of the small investors to buy GameStop shares began blocking buys from fresh purchases. Some American lawmakers have now demanded an investigation into this halt. The bet against GameStop has left Wall Street traders burnt. The entire affair is a reminder that market investments remain a risky business.

How GameStop stocks surge exposed Wall Street elites

Indian stock market indices fluctuated between gains and losses in Friday's volatile session as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled Economic Survey in the Lok Sabha.

The Sensex plunged 588.59 points, or 1.26 per cent to 46,285.77, while the Nifty settled at 13,634.60, lower by 182.95 points, or 1.32 per cent.

Broader markets, Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 ended 0.38 per cent and 0.63 per cent lower, respectively. Among sectors, metal, pharma and FMCG also reeled under pressure, while banking and realty index ended in the green.

(With inputs from agencies)

Indian stock market indices fluctuated between gains and losses in Friday's volatile session as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled Economic Survey in the Lok Sabha.

Indian stock market indices fluctuated between gains and losses in Friday's volatile session as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled Economic Survey in the Lok Sabha. The Sensex plunged 588.59 points, or 1.26 per cent to 46,285.77, while the Nifty settled at 13,634.60, lower by 182.95 points, or 1.32 per cent. Broader markets, Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 ended 0.38 per cent and 0.63 per cent lower, respectively. Among sectors, metal, pharma and FMCG also reeled under pressure, while banking and realty index ended in the green. (With inputs from agencies)

Sensex tanks 588 points, Nifty gives up 13,700

An epic battle is unfolding on Wall Street, with a cast of characters clashing over the fate of GameStop&nbsp;skyrocketing for a fourth straight day, thanks in part to&nbsp;Elon&nbsp;Musk.

Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has waged his own battle with short sellers before seeing spectacular gains for the electric carmaker, appeared to encourage the movement by tweeting a link to the Reddit forum along with the cryptic comment&nbsp;"Gamestonk!!"&nbsp;

"Stonks" is a tongue-in-cheek term for stocks widely used on social media.

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Gamestonk!! <a href="https://t.co/RZtkDzAewJ">https://t.co/RZtkDzAewJ</a>
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Herds of amateur investors on Reddit have long been supporters of Tesla and other hyper-volatile stocks, and their influence appears to be growing.

'Short squeeze'

The WallStreetBets followers have been on a GameStop buying spree, which not only pushes up the shares but puts pressure on short sellers to make purchases to "cover" their bets to avoid steeper losses.

This is known on Wall Street as a "short squeeze" and can result in a dizzying rally by forcing short-sellers into becoming buyers.

As a result, GameStop surged 18 per cent on Monday, another 115 per cent Tuesday and had leapt 135 per cent Wednesday. That followed a stunning 50 per cent jump on Friday.

Short sellers, while reviled by some market players, are nonetheless seen as playing an important role in the markets by providing liquidity and driving down overpriced shares.&nbsp;

But at least one GameStop short-seller said he walked away from the stock after what he claimed was harassment and threats by an "angry mob."

As well as GameStop, BlackBerry, also favoured on Wallstreetbets, advanced 4.9&nbsp;per cent&nbsp;and is up 185&nbsp;per cent&nbsp;this year. An earlier tweet by&nbsp;Musk&nbsp;sent Etsy up almost 9% before it reversed its gains.

The surge in recent days - GameStop has increased more than seven-fold to $147.98 from $19 since January&nbsp;12 - has spurred concerns over bubbles in stocks that hedge funds and other speculative players had bet would fall in value.

Trading in GameStop stock was halted for volatility nine times on Monday and five times on Tuesday.

Why have GameStop shares been so volatile?

GameStop, a well-known retail chain whose business model of selling games on discs appears to have been overtaken by a move to the internet, has been the target of "short-sellers," often big hedge funds that bet on a decline by selling borrowed shares in the hope of repaying at a lower price.

But a group of amateur investors, organizing via the online platform Reddit, has fought the trend. A group calling itself WallStreetBets, with some three million members who exchange tips and boast about beating "the system," is credited with pushing up GameStop shares and roiling the Wall Street establishment.

Some analysts have described the situation as a "nerds vs Wall Street" battle.

Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of WallStreetBets, said the movement "is able to do what Occupy Wall Street was never able to do but on a completely different angle."

"Occupy Wall Street was fed up with this saying 'It's a game we can't play, you're forgetting the little guy.' Now the little guy figured out a different way around it," he said.

The WallStreetBets forum had restricted access to those outside its 3.6 million subscribers for a few hours Wednesday evening but was again visible to the public by 0115 GMT early Thursday.

Should regulators intervene?

The extreme volatility has raised concerns about manipulation, which could lead to an investigation by stock market regulators, and has even drawn attention from the White House.

"Our economic team including (Treasury) Secretary (Janet) Yellen and others are monitoring the situation," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

"It's a good reminder, though, that the stock market isn't the only measure of the health of our economy."

Late Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it was monitoring the activity.

"We are aware of and actively monitoring the ongoing market volatility in the options and equities markets and... we are working with our fellow regulators to assess the situation and review the activities of regulated entities, financial intermediaries, and other market participants," an SEC statement said.

Jacob Frenkel, a former enforcement lawyer with the SEC, said the situation warrants regulatory review.

One option would be "a trading pause for 10 days to ensure that all investors would have access to accurate and timely information," Frenkel said.

Senator Elizabeth Warren also called for scrutiny.

"For years, the same hedge funds, private equity firms, and&nbsp;wealthy investors dismayed by the GameStop trades have treated the stock market like their own personal casino&nbsp;while everyone else pays the price," she said in a statement.&nbsp;

"It's long past time for the SEC and other financial regulators to wake up and do their jobs."

An epic battle is unfolding on Wall Street, with a cast of characters clashing over the fate of GameStop skyrocketing for a fourth straight day, thanks in part to Elon Musk.

An epic battle is unfolding on Wall Street, with a cast of characters clashing over the fate of GameStop skyrocketing for a fourth straight day, thanks in part to Elon Musk. Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has waged his own battle with short sellers before seeing spectacular gains for the electric carmaker, appeared to encourage the movement by tweeting a link to the Reddit forum along with the cryptic comment "Gamestonk!!" "Stonks" is a tongue-in-cheek term for stocks widely used on social media. Gamestonk!! https://t.co/RZtkDzAewJ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2021 × Herds of amateur investors on Reddit have long been supporters of Tesla and other hyper-volatile stocks, and their influence appears to be growing. 'Short squeeze' The WallStreetBets followers have been on a GameStop buying spree, which not only pushes up the shares but puts pressure on short sellers to make purchases to "cover" their bets to avoid steeper losses. This is known on Wall Street as a "short squeeze" and can result in a dizzying rally by forcing short-sellers into becoming buyers. As a result, GameStop surged 18 per cent on Monday, another 115 per cent Tuesday and had leapt 135 per cent Wednesday. That followed a stunning 50 per cent jump on Friday. Short sellers, while reviled by some market players, are nonetheless seen as playing an important role in the markets by providing liquidity and driving down overpriced shares. But at least one GameStop short-seller said he walked away from the stock after what he claimed was harassment and threats by an "angry mob." As well as GameStop, BlackBerry, also favoured on Wallstreetbets, advanced 4.9 per cent and is up 185 per cent this year. An earlier tweet by Musk sent Etsy up almost 9% before it reversed its gains. The surge in recent days - GameStop has increased more than seven-fold to $147.98 from $19 since January 12 - has spurred concerns over bubbles in stocks that hedge funds and other speculative players had bet would fall in value. Trading in GameStop stock was halted for volatility nine times on Monday and five times on Tuesday. Why have GameStop shares been so volatile? GameStop, a well-known retail chain whose business model of selling games on discs appears to have been overtaken by a move to the internet, has been the target of "short-sellers," often big hedge funds that bet on a decline by selling borrowed shares in the hope of repaying at a lower price. But a group of amateur investors, organizing via the online platform Reddit, has fought the trend. A group calling itself WallStreetBets, with some three million members who exchange tips and boast about beating "the system," is credited with pushing up GameStop shares and roiling the Wall Street establishment. Some analysts have described the situation as a "nerds vs Wall Street" battle. Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of WallStreetBets, said the movement "is able to do what Occupy Wall Street was never able to do but on a completely different angle." "Occupy Wall Street was fed up with this saying 'It's a game we can't play, you're forgetting the little guy.' Now the little guy figured out a different way around it," he said. The WallStreetBets forum had restricted access to those outside its 3.6 million subscribers for a few hours Wednesday evening but was again visible to the public by 0115 GMT early Thursday. Should regulators intervene? The extreme volatility has raised concerns about manipulation, which could lead to an investigation by stock market regulators, and has even drawn attention from the White House. "Our economic team including (Treasury) Secretary (Janet) Yellen and others are monitoring the situation," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "It's a good reminder, though, that the stock market isn't the only measure of the health of our economy." Late Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it was monitoring the activity. "We are aware of and actively monitoring the ongoing market volatility in the options and equities markets and... we are working with our fellow regulators to assess the situation and review the activities of regulated entities, financial intermediaries, and other market participants," an SEC statement said. Jacob Frenkel, a former enforcement lawyer with the SEC, said the situation warrants regulatory review. One option would be "a trading pause for 10 days to ensure that all investors would have access to accurate and timely information," Frenkel said. Senator Elizabeth Warren also called for scrutiny. "For years, the same hedge funds, private equity firms, and wealthy investors dismayed by the GameStop trades have treated the stock market like their own personal casino while everyone else pays the price," she said in a statement. "It's long past time for the SEC and other financial regulators to wake up and do their jobs."

GameStop prompts surge in hyper-rally after Elon Musk's tweet

Domestic stock market indices ended a percent lower on Thursday dragged mainly by selling in IT stocks and PSU banks amid weak global cues.&nbsp;

At the index level, the benchmark S&amp;P BSE Sensex tumbled 891 points in the intra-day deals today but managed to settle 535.6 points, or 1.13 per cent, down at 46,874.36 levels.&nbsp;

Nifty50 closed above the 13,800-mark at 13,817.5 level, down 150 points or 1.07 per cent. The index hit an intra-day low of 13,713.

In the broader market, the S&amp;P BSE MidCap index ended 0.4 per cen lower while the smallcap counterpart closed down 0.45 per cent.

(With inputs from agencies)

Domestic stock market indices ended a percent lower on Thursday dragged mainly by selling in IT stocks and PSU banks amid weak global cues. At the index level, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 891 points in the intra-day deals today but managed to settle 535.

Domestic stock market indices ended a percent lower on Thursday dragged mainly by selling in IT stocks and PSU banks amid weak global cues. At the index level, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 891 points in the intra-day deals today but managed to settle 535.6 points, or 1.13 per cent, down at 46,874.36 levels. Nifty50 closed above the 13,800-mark at 13,817.5 level, down 150 points or 1.07 per cent. The index hit an intra-day low of 13,713. In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended 0.4 per cen lower while the smallcap counterpart closed down 0.45 per cent. (With inputs from agencies)

Sensex ends 535.57 points lower, Nifty just above 13,800

The domestic benchmark indices were feeble on Wednesday, down nearly 2 per cent, as selling pressure intensified in the noon deals.

The Sensex plunged 937.66 points, or 1.94 per cent to close at 47,409.93, while the Nifty ended at 13,967.50, down 271.40 points, or 1.91 per cent. The Nifty Bank and Financial Services led the losses while the pharma, metal and auto indices also reeled under pressure.&nbsp;

In the last four days, Sensex has lost over 2,500 points in a sell-off, which some analysts have attributed to pre-Budget nervousness and broader profit booking.&nbsp;

Analysts said investors of late have preferred taking profits off the table ahead of the Union Budget and F&amp;O expiry.

(With inputs from agencies)

The domestic benchmark indices were feeble on Wednesday, down nearly 2 per cent, as selling pressure intensified in the noon deals. The Sensex plunged 937.66 points, or 1.

The domestic benchmark indices were feeble on Wednesday, down nearly 2 per cent, as selling pressure intensified in the noon deals. The Sensex plunged 937.66 points, or 1.94 per cent to close at 47,409.93, while the Nifty ended at 13,967.50, down 271.40 points, or 1.91 per cent. The Nifty Bank and Financial Services led the losses while the pharma, metal and auto indices also reeled under pressure. In the last four days, Sensex has lost over 2,500 points in a sell-off, which some analysts have attributed to pre-Budget nervousness and broader profit booking. Analysts said investors of late have preferred taking profits off the table ahead of the Union Budget and F&O expiry. (With inputs from agencies)

Sensex tanks 937 points; Nifty ends below 14,000

The Indian market was trading lower on Wednesday mainly led by a decline in banking, financial and auto stocks.&nbsp;

BSE Sensex fell 600 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 47,800 levels. The Nifty50 index also slipped below the 14,100-mark. Reliance Industries extended Monday's loss and dropped another 2 per cent. The index-heavyweight was the top Sensex loser, followed by Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, and Dr Reddy's (all down 1%).

Analysts said investors of late have preferred taking profits off the table ahead of the Union Budget and F&amp;O expiry.

Foreign investors sold equities worth Rs 765.30 crore on a net basis in the Indian capital market on Monday, exchange data showed.

Indian equity markets were closed on Tuesday for the Republic Day.

Meanwhile, Asian equities slipped as investors looked to the US Federal Reserve`s guidance on its monetary policy. MSCI`s gauge of Asian ex-Japan shares slipped by 0.3 per cent, dragged lower by profit-taking in resource shares. But Japan`s Nikkei rose by 0.2 per cent while South Korea and Taiwan eked out small gains.

(With inputs from agencies)

The Indian market was trading lower on Wednesday mainly led by a decline in banking, financial and auto stocks. BSE Sensex fell 600 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 47,800 levels.

The Indian market was trading lower on Wednesday mainly led by a decline in banking, financial and auto stocks. BSE Sensex fell 600 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 47,800 levels. The Nifty50 index also slipped below the 14,100-mark. Reliance Industries extended Monday's loss and dropped another 2 per cent. The index-heavyweight was the top Sensex loser, followed by Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, and Dr Reddy's (all down 1%). Analysts said investors of late have preferred taking profits off the table ahead of the Union Budget and F&O expiry. Foreign investors sold equities worth Rs 765.30 crore on a net basis in the Indian capital market on Monday, exchange data showed. Indian equity markets were closed on Tuesday for the Republic Day. Meanwhile, Asian equities slipped as investors looked to the US Federal Reserve`s guidance on its monetary policy. MSCI`s gauge of Asian ex-Japan shares slipped by 0.3 per cent, dragged lower by profit-taking in resource shares. But Japan`s Nikkei rose by 0.2 per cent while South Korea and Taiwan eked out small gains. (With inputs from agencies)

Sensex cracks 600 points, Nifty nears 14,050 amid a selloff in financial stocks

Domestic stock market indices have been witnessing volatility since morning, amid mixed global cues.

Sensex settled the session at 48,347.6 levels, down 531 points or 1.09 per cent, dragged by Reliance Industries (down 5.6 per cent), IndusInd Bank (down 5.5 per cent), HCL Tech (down 3.86 per cent), and HDFC (down 1 per cent).

The Nifty50, meanwhile, gave up the 14,250-mark and closed at 14,239 levels, down 133 points or 0.93 per cent.

Meanwhile, Indian rupee traded at 72.90 per dollar, amid a sell-off in domestic equities. The unit had opened flat at 72.95 per dollar against Friday's close of 72.97.

Global markets

Asian shares climbed to near all-time highs on Monday as concerns over rising Covid-19 cases and delays in vaccine supplies were eclipsed by optimism of a $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus plan to help revive the US economy.&nbsp;

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose to 726.46, while Japan's Nikkei rebounded from falls in early trading to be up 0.7 per cent. Australian shares added 0.4 per cent after the country's drug regulator approved the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine with a phased rollout likely late next month. Chinese shares rose, with the blue-chip CSI300 index up 1.1 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leapt nearly 2 per cent led by technology stocks.

In Europe, stocks rose as gains in technology shares and upbeat earnings reports helped investors look past the possibility of extended lockdowns. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4 per cent.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Domestic stock market indices have been witnessing volatility since morning, amid mixed global cues. Sensex settled the session at 48,347.6 levels, down 531 points or 1.

Domestic stock market indices have been witnessing volatility since morning, amid mixed global cues. Sensex settled the session at 48,347.6 levels, down 531 points or 1.09 per cent, dragged by Reliance Industries (down 5.6 per cent), IndusInd Bank (down 5.5 per cent), HCL Tech (down 3.86 per cent), and HDFC (down 1 per cent). The Nifty50, meanwhile, gave up the 14,250-mark and closed at 14,239 levels, down 133 points or 0.93 per cent. Meanwhile, Indian rupee traded at 72.90 per dollar, amid a sell-off in domestic equities. The unit had opened flat at 72.95 per dollar against Friday's close of 72.97. Global markets Asian shares climbed to near all-time highs on Monday as concerns over rising Covid-19 cases and delays in vaccine supplies were eclipsed by optimism of a $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus plan to help revive the US economy. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose to 726.46, while Japan's Nikkei rebounded from falls in early trading to be up 0.7 per cent. Australian shares added 0.4 per cent after the country's drug regulator approved the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine with a phased rollout likely late next month. Chinese shares rose, with the blue-chip CSI300 index up 1.1 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leapt nearly 2 per cent led by technology stocks. In Europe, stocks rose as gains in technology shares and upbeat earnings reports helped investors look past the possibility of extended lockdowns. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4 per cent. (With inputs from Reuters)

Sensex tanks over 500 points, Nifty ends below 14,250

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq composite and Russell 2000 index of smaller companies also notched record highs.

Wall Street hits record after President Joe Biden takes office

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