Sector Update: Financial Stocks Mixed Tuesday Afternoon

01:40 PM EST, 03/03/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were mixed in Tuesday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index dropping 1.1% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) rising 0.3%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index was falling 1.5%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) was down 0.7%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was declining 0.8% to $68,279, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries was rising 1.3 basis points to 4.07%.

In economic news, the US and Israel's war on Iran expanded to Lebanon, while the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint for about 20% of global oil exports, remains closed amid the violence. "Oil is Iran's weapon of choice, and it is aimed straight at President [Donald] Trump's Midterm elections," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief analyst for commodities at SEB Research. "An important part of the battlefield for Iran is thus at the US gasoline pump."

In corporate news, Blackstone (BX) shares fell 3.3%. The company's Blackstone Private Credit Fund, or BCRED, said in a Monday filing that its board upsized the maximum amount of permitted share repurchases to 7%, from its usual 5% threshold. The move comes as BCRED said it will fulfill all share repurchase requests in Q1 of nearly $2 billion, exceeding its 5% limit.

A BlackRock (BLK)-led (BLK) group is seeking to close a port deal without two Panama Canal terminals whose assets were seized by authorities, Bloomberg reported. Separately, BlackRock (BLK) has sold its remaining 11.4% stake in Spanish energy company Naturgy for 2.79 billion euros ($3.25 billion), Reuters reported. BlackRock (BLK) shares were down 0.5%.

Apollo Global Management's (APO) shareholders sued the company in a proposed class action that alleged Apollo and its senior leadership falsely denied business dealings with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Apollo shares were up 1.1%.

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