Sector Update: Financial Stocks Mixed Friday Afternoon

02:04 PM EDT, 03/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were mixed in Friday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index down 0.5% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) adding 0.7%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index fell 2%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) dropped 1.6%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was easing 0.1% to $69,833, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries climbed 9.1 basis points to 4.37%.

In economic news, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis now forecast Q1 US GDP growth of 1.69%, down from an earlier estimate of a 2.05% gain.

In corporate news, Janus Henderson's (JHG) investment teams, overseeing a vast majority of the company's assets, have expressed concerns to the company about being acquired by Victory Capital, Bloomberg reported. Janus shares fell 1.4%.

Ecolab (ECL) agreed to buy CoolIT Systems from KKR (KKR) in a $4.75 billion deal as tech companies increasingly prefer liquid cooling for AI-driven data centers. KKR shares were down 0.6%.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) plans to deploy a program to monitor working hours across its investment banking unit, the Financial Times reported. Separately, JPMorgan (JPM) is leading the offering of $4.1 billion in dollar-denominated loans to help finance Clayton Dubilier & Rice's acquisition of packaging firm Sealed Air (SEE), Bloomberg reported. JPMorgan (JPM) shares rose 0.4%.

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