Market Updates: Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), American International Group (NYSE: AIG), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)

UBS AG plans to hire more than a dozen sales and trading staff to bolster its equities business in Canada over the next two years after receiving a record number of job requests from employees at rival firms. “We’ve had more incoming inquiries than ever before in my 10 years” at UBS, said Rick Meslin, managing director and head of Canadian equities. “We are very, very busy looking and waiting for bonuses to be paid in Canada and elsewhere.” More than 700 investment bankers, traders and analysts have been hired in North America this year by Canadian lenders such as Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal. The companies added employees from U.S. banks including Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) -Bloomberg

The zloty is the “most undervalued” of emerging-market currencies and will probably appreciate 12 percent against the euro by mid-2010, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) stated. The Polish currency may gain to 3.65 per euro by June, the strongest since November last year, the bank said in a research report dated today. The zloty advanced 0.5 percent to 4.1039 per euro as of 1:33 p.m. in Warsaw after Poland’s central bank kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 3.5 percent for a fifth month as economic growth gathers pace. -Bloomberg

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) has been authorized by its board to pay CEO Robert Benmosche’s $7 million in compensation, after it laid to rest concerns that he might quit his post. This breaks down to an annual salary of $3 million in cash and $4 million in fully-vested AIG stock, which he can’t sell for five years. With a performance bonus, the value of his pay package could reach $10.5 million. -Daily Finance

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) demand for rock-bottom prices from suppliers in China means some of these companies are forcing their employees to work in sweatshop-like conditions, a new report said on Wednesday. China Labour Watch said Wal-Mart, which also operates more than 250 stores in China, is failing to pick up on such abuses when it carries out audits of certain suppliers, calling into doubt pledges to source ethically. "As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart leverages its massive product orders to purchase goods at low prices, and workers suffer the financial burden," China Labour Watch, a New York-based rights group, said. -Reuters

Facebook Inc. took steps to solidify the control of founder Mark Zuckerberg and other existing shareholders in the event the social-networking company goes public. The closely held Silicon Valley firm, emulating one of Google Inc.’s well-known strategies, established a dual-class stock structure that would increase the voting power of Mr. Zuckerberg, who is the company’s chief executive, and other existing shareholders if they hold onto their shares during an IPO. -The Wall Street Journal