Sector Update: Financial Stocks Fall Thursday Afternoon

02:01 PM EST, 02/19/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were decreasing in Thursday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index falling 1.2% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) dropping 1.4%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index was shedding 0.9%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector was down 0.5%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was up 0.8% at $66,981, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries was down 1 basis point at nearly 4.07%.

In economic news, US initial jobless claims fell sequentially to 206,000 in the week ended Feb. 14 from an upwardly revised 229,000, compared with expectations for 225,000 in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

The US international trade deficit widened to $70.31 billion in December from a $53.04 billion gap in November, compared with a $55.5 billion gap expected in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

The Conference Board's measure of leading indicators declined by 0.2% in December, as expected in a Bloomberg-compiled poll and following a 0.3% decrease in November.

In corporate news, Klarna (KLAR) reported a 2025 net loss Thursday of $0.79 per diluted share, swinging from a profit of $0.01 a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a loss of $0.70. Klarna (KLAR) shares dropped 25%.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has been sanctioned by the European Central Bank with two administrative fines totaling about 12.2 million euros ($14.3 million) for allegedly misreporting risk-weighted assets between 2019 and 2024, the central bank said Thursday. JPMorgan (JPM) shares were down 0.7%.

Morgan Stanley (MS) has reduced fees for clients trading private company shares on its newly acquired EquityZen platform to 2.5% from 5% for most transactions, Bloomberg reported. Morgan Stanley (MS) shares fell 1.9%.

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