Hopes for a Santa Claus rally on Wall Street fell Friday as tech stocks slid lower, while a weaker yen lifted Japanese equities.US indices slumped to end the holiday week, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite losing 1.5 percent.Shares in Tesla were closed around 5.0 percent lower, while those in AI chipmaker Nvidia shed around 2.0 percent.Wall Street stocks have historically performed well around the year-end holidays in what is popularly known as a Santa Claus rally.A Christmas Eve jump in equities got the Santa rally off to a flying start and indices barely budged in Thursday trading.Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare also pointed to an increase in 10-year US Treasury bond yields to around 4.6 percent, which he noted is a rise of nearly 0.9 percentage points since the US Federal Reserve made its first recent interest rate cut in September.”The Fed doesn’t hold sway over longer-dated maturities like it does over shorter-dated securities, so the bump in rates at the back end of the curve is being watched with an anxious eye as a possible harbinger of a pickup in inflation and/or the budget deficit,” O’Hare said.Wall Street stocks took a knock earlier this month when the Fed indicated it would likely cut interest rates less than it had previously expected to.That was in part because of uncertainty tied to President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to raise import tariffs, which could boost inflation that is already proving sticky.In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei index closed up nearly two percent, with the yen’s recent weakness proving a boon for major exporters. The yen hit 158.08 per US dollar on Thursday evening — its lowest in almost six months — following comments made by Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda that failed to give a clear signal on a possible interest rate increase next month.Recent data has showed Japan’s inflation rose for a second month in December, while industrial production declined less than expected in November and retail sales came in higher than estimated last month.Japan’s government also on Friday approved a record budget for the next fiscal year, ramping up spending on social welfare for its ageing population and on defense to tackle regional threats.In Seoul, the stock market closed down one percent after the won plunged to a nearly 16-year low of 1,487.03 against the dollar on Friday morning.South Korea is struggling to emerge from political turbulence in the wake of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration this month, which prompted his impeachment.Acting President Han Duck-soo was also impeached Friday in a vote that prompted governing party lawmakers to protest with angry chants and raised fists.South Korea’s business outlook for January fell in the Bank of Korea’s composite sentiment index, the biggest month-on-month slide since April 2020, according to data based on almost 3,300 firms released Friday.In Europe, Frankfurt’s DAX index rose after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved parliament on Friday and confirmed the expected date for the early general election, emphasizing the need for “political stability” in Europe’s largest economy.- Key figures around 2115 GMT -New York – Dow: DOWN 0.8 percent at 42,992.21 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 1.1 percent at 5,970.84 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.5 percent at 19,722.03 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 8,149.78 (close)Paris – CAC 40: UP 1.0 percent at 7,355.37 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.7 percent at 19,984.32 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.8 percent at 40,281.16 points (close)Seoul – Kospi: DOWN 1.0 percent at 2,404.77 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.1 percent at 20,116.93 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.1 percent at 3,400.14 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0429 from $1.0424 on ThursdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2579 from $1.2526Dollar/yen: DOWN at 157.89 yen from 158.00 yenEuro/pound: DOWN at 82.87 pence from 83.19 penceWest Texas Intermediate: UP 1.4 percent at $70.60 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: UP 1.2 percent at $74.17 per barrelburs-rl/rlp/bys/sms

Montenegro said Friday it will extradite to the United States the South Korean cryptocurrency specialist Do Kwon, who is also wanted by Seoul for the multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy of his company, Terraform Labs.His lawyers denounced the decision as illegal and contrary to European conventions on extradition.For months, Seoul and Washington have been seeking the South Korean’s extradition for his suspected role in a fraud linked to his company’s failure, which wiped out about $40 billion of investors’ money and shook global crypto markets.Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic “issued a decision approving the extradition of the accused, Kwon Do Hyung, to the United States of America,” the justice ministry said, referring to him by his full name.The decision followed a year and a half of court rulings and subsequent reversals regarding his extradition.”It was concluded that the majority of the criteria prescribed by law favour the extradition request” from the United States, the ministry added in a statement.The crypto tycoon was arrested in March 2023 at the airport in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, while preparing to board a flight to Dubai, in possession of a fake Costa Rican passport.Before his arrest, he had been on the run for months, fleeing South Korea and later Singapore, before his company went bankrupt in 2022.- ‘Stablecoin’ collapse -After a series of rulings by the Montenegrin courts, approving and then cancelling extradition requests, the country’s Constitutional Court lifted the final hurdle on Tuesday.It said in a ruling that previous proceedings “ensured the appellant’s right to a fair trial and did not raise concerns about a possible violation of the right to family life”.The court also said that Kwon, during the hearing, “personally consented to expedited extradition to both the Republic of South Korea and the United States”.Kwon’s Montenegrin lawyers, Marija Radulovic and Goran Rodic, said in a statement to AFP that they had not been provided with the ministry’s full decision.They called that “a drastic violation of Do Kwon’s fundamental human rights, namely the right to defence and the right to appeal”.Montenegro had already deported Kwon’s business partner — identified only by his initials J.C.H. — to South Korea in early February.Terraform Labs created a cryptocurrency called TerraUSD that was marketed as a “stablecoin”, a token that is pegged to stable assets such as the US dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations.Do Kwon successfully marketed them as the next big thing in crypto, attracting billions in investments and global hype.Media reports in South Korea described him as a “genius”.But despite billions in investments, TerraUSD and its sister token Luna went into a death spiral in May 2022.Experts said Kwon had set up a glorified Ponzi scheme, in which many investors lost their life savings.He left South Korea before the crash and spent months on the run.In January, Terraform Labs officially sought bankruptcy protection in the United States.The bankruptcy filing would allow Terraform “to execute on its business plan while navigating ongoing legal proceedings, including representative litigation pending in Singapore and US litigation involving the Securities and Exchange Commission”, the company said in a statement.It said it also intended to “meet all financial obligations to employees and vendors”.Cryptocurrencies have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators after a string of controversies in recent years, including the high-profile collapse of the exchange FTX.

Montenegro will extradite to the United States South Korean cryptocurrency specialist Do Kwon, who is also wanted by Seoul for the multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy of his company, Terraform Labs, the Montenegrin Justice Ministry announced on Friday.For months, Seoul and Washington have been seeking the South Korean’s extradition for his suspected role in a fraud linked to his company’s failure, which wiped out about $40 billion of investors’ money and shook global crypto markets.”The Minister of Justice, Bojan Bozovic, issued a decision approving the extradition of the accused, Kwon Do Hyung, to the United States of America,” the Ministry of Justice announced, following a year and a half of dizzying court rulings and subsequent reversals regarding his extradition.”It was concluded that the majority of the criteria prescribed by law favour the extradition request from the competent authorities of the United States of America,” the Ministry added in a statement.The crypto tycoon was arrested in March 2023 at the airport in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, while preparing to board a flight to Dubai, in possession of a fake Costa Rican passport.Before his arrest, he had been on the run for months, fleeing South Korea and later Singapore, before his company went bankrupt in 2022.After a series of rulings by the Montenegrin courts, approving and then cancelling extradition requests, the country’s Constitutional Court lifted the final hurdle on Tuesday.”The Constitutional Court concluded that the procedure preceding the constitutional review was conducted in a manner that ensured the appellant’s right to a fair trial and did not raise concerns about a possible violation of the right to family life,” states the decision published on the Constitutional Court’s website on December 24th.The court also emphasized that Kwon, during the hearing, “personally consented to expedited extradition to both the Republic of South Korea and the United States.”Montenegro has already deported Kwon’s business partner — identified only by his initials J.C.H. — to South Korea in early February.Terraform Labs created a cryptocurrency called TerraUSD that was marketed as a “stablecoin”, a token that is pegged to stable assets such as the US dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations.Do Kwon successfully marketed them as the next big thing in crypto, attracting billions in investments and global hype.Media reports in South Korea described him as a “genius”.But despite billions in investments, TerraUSD and its sister token Luna went into a death spiral in May 2022.Experts said Kwon had set up a glorified Ponzi scheme, in which many investors lost their life savings.He left South Korea before the crash and spent months on the run.In January, Terraform Labs officially sought bankruptcy protection in the United States.The bankruptcy filing would allow Terraform “to execute on its business plan while navigating ongoing legal proceedings, including representative litigation pending in Singapore and US litigation involving the Securities and Exchange Commission”, the company said in a statement.It said it also intended to “meet all financial obligations to employees and vendors”.Cryptocurrencies have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators after a string of controversies in recent years, including the high-profile collapse of the exchange FTX.