Sector Update: Financial Stocks Higher Late Afternoon

04:00 PM EST, 02/25/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks gained in late Wednesday afternoon trading with the NYSE Financial Index rising 1.4% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) advancing 1.7%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index fell 2.9%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) shed 0.7%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) jumped 7.2% to $69,136, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries rose 1.5 basis points to 4.05%.

In economic news, mortgage applications rose 0.4% in the week ended Friday, with lower mortgage rates lifting refinancing activity to offset a decline in new-home applications, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data.

In corporate news, Deutsche Bank (DB) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are considering the use of agentic AI in trading surveillance, Bloomberg reported. Deutsche is collaborating with Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Cloud to develop a large-language model to track anomalies in orders and trades as well as to flag market abuse to a compliance officer, the report said. Goldman plans to use AI to monitor suspicious trade signals or market movements, the report said. Deutsche shares rose 1.7%, and Goldman added 2.1%.

Klarna (KLAR) shares jumped 6% after the digital bank services provider said its app now has more than 55 million monthly active users globally, with 9 million people using the app on a daily basis.

Blackstone (BX), Centerbridge Partners and TPG (TPG) have expressed interest in buying MarineMax (HZO) or pieces of it, Reuters reported. Blackstone shares rose 1.6%, and TPG added 3.9%.

KKR (KKR) is in the final stages of talks to acquire Japanese chemical producer Taiyo, Bloomberg reported. KKR shares advanced 0.9%.

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