Sector Update: Financial Stocks Softer Late Afternoon

03:49 PM EDT, 07/02/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks declined in late Wednesday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index easing 0.1% and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) shedding 0.2%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index rose 0.8%, while the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLRE) advanced 0.1%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) climbed 3.6% to $109,552, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries gained 4.2 basis points to 4.29%.

In economic news, Automatic Data Processing's monthly measure of private payrolls showed a 33,000 decrease in June, against expectations for a rise of 98,000 in a Bloomberg survey.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said US companies planned to cut 47,999 jobs in June, below 93,816 in May and down from 48,786 a year earlier.

President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the US and Vietnam reached a trade agreement with the Asian nation paying a 20% tariff on all exports sent to the US and a 40% tariff on transshipment. The US will have full access to Vietnamese markets, meaning "we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO tariff," Trump said.

In corporate news, shares of crypto-related companies rose after the Wall Street Journal reported that Ripple applied for a national banking license with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. MicroStrategy (MSTR) gained 8%, Coinbase (COIN) climbed 6.2%, and MARA Holdings (MARA) jumped 13%.

JPMorgan Chase's (JPM) blockchain unit Kinexys is exploring the development of a service for the tokenization of carbon credits in collaboration with S&P Global (SPGI) Commodity Insights' Environmental Registry, the companies said. JPMorgan (JPM) shares rose 0.5%, while S&P Global was down 0.7%.

UK scientific instruments maker Spectris said it has accepted KKR's (KKR) offer to take over the company for 4.7 billion pounds ($6.44 billion). KKR shares added 1.6%.

Goldman Sachs (GS) has appointed Raghav Maliah as chair of investment banking, a global role he will take on while maintaining his regional duties, Reuters reported, citing a memo issued by the bank. Goldman shares rose 1.4%.

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