Thanks Dragoncar. That site includes, "Restat 2d of Torts, § 552, dealing with negligent misrepresentation says that
(1) One who, in the course of his business, profession or employment, or in any other transaction in which he has a pecuniary interest, supplies false information for the guidance of others in their business transactions, is subject to liability for pecuniary loss caused to them by their justifiable reliance upon the information, if he fails to exercise reasonable care or competence in obtaining or communicating the information."
Salem's assumption he'd get a bigger bonus was "based on the fact that his mortgage-trading desk generated about the same amount of revenue in 2010 as it did the previous year and that Justin Gmelich, a credit trading executive, told him at a cocktail hour that he was a “steal” at $15 million, Salem said." In other words, based on an assumption of his own making and a compliment at a party. This doesn't look like a negligent misrepresentation in the course of business to me. Apparently it didn't to the Finra panel that rejected his claim, either.