Sector Update: Financial Stocks Lower in Thursday Trading

04:11 PM EST, 02/19/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks declined Thursday with the NYSE Financial Index falling 0.8% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) dropping 0.9%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index fell 1.3%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF lost 0.4%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) rose 0.8% to $66,952, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries was little changed at 4.08%.

In economic news, US initial jobless claims last week fell to 206,000 from an upwardly revised 229,000 a week earlier, compared with expectations for 225,000 in a Bloomberg 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 deficit expected in a Bloomberg survey.

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

In corporate news, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) alleged in a court filing that President Donald Trump improperly added its CEO Jamie Dimon as a defendant in his lawsuit to avoid federal court jurisdiction. Last month, Trump sued JPMorgan (JPM) and Dimon, accusing the bank of terminating certain accounts related to Trump and his entities for political reasons. Separately, JPMorgan (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 in 2019-24, the ECB said. JPMorgan (JPM) shares fell 0.2%.

Klarna Group (KLAR) shares dropped 27%. The company reported a 2025 net loss 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.

Morgan Stanley (MS) 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) stock fell 1.3%.

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