Bonuses grow for Wall St. securities industry workers

The average bonus paid to securities industry employees in New York City grew 15 percent last year to more than $164,000, the largest average Wall Street bonus since the 2008 financial crisis and the third highest on record, New York’s state comptroller reported Wednesday.

The securities industry has been profitable for five consecutive years, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. It had 165,200 workers in New York City as of December, or 12.6 percent fewer than before the crisis.

Starbucks soon to offer mobile payment tipping app

Starbucks will soon let customers leave tips with its mobile payment app.

The coffee chain says the mobile tipping option will be available on its updated app for iPhones starting March 19.

The rollout comes as the company’s app has surged in popularity, with roughly one out of every 10 purchases now made with a mobile device.

After paying with the app, Starbucks says customers will be able to leave a tip of 50 cents, $1 or $2 anytime within two hours of the transaction. The tipping option will only be available at the 7,000 of the roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. that are owned by the company.

Indexes mixed; heating and other fuel prices drop

The S&P 500 index added 0.57 points, or 0.03 percent, to close at 1,868.20. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 11.17 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,340.08. The Nasdaq composite rebounded in the early afternoon, gaining 16.14 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,323.33.

Benchmark U.S. crude for April delivery fell $2.04, or 2 percent, to close at $97.99 a barrel in New York. Wholesale gasoline slipped 1 cent to $2.96 a gallon.

Heating oil declined 4 cents to $2.93 a gallon. Natural gas lost 12 cents to $4.49 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude, used to set prices for international varieties of crude, dropped 53 cents to $108.02 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

– From news service reports