Financial stocks held on to moderate gains late in the afternoon, with the NYSE Financial Index climbing 0.5% and the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF) adding 0.3%.
The Philadelphia housing index rose 1.6% and the SPDR Real Estate Select Sector ETF (XLRE) posted a 0.2% gain, reversing earlier declines that followed new data showing that sales of existing homes in the United States fell 7.2% in February from the previous month. an annualized rate of 6.02 million compared to market expectations for an annual rate of 6.1 million.
Bitcoin rose 2.3% to $41,782, while the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries slipped 4.4 basis points to 2.148%.
In company news, Ambac Financial Group (AMBC) fell more than 23% after the financial guarantees company said it planned to report a significant downward adjustment to its estimated subrogation recoveries at the following a decision of the New York Court of Appeals in a case involving the Home Equity Asset Trust 2007-1.
Among the gainers, Trustmark (TRMK) edged higher this afternoon, recovering from a 2.5% decline, after the bank holding company announced overnight the sale of its trust business. company at Peoples Financial (PFBX), listed on the stock exchange. Financial terms were not disclosed, although Trustmark said the deal is expected to close by mid-year.
Huize Holding (HUIZ) was racing toward a nearly 40% lead after the Chinese insurance broker on Friday cleared a new $5 million share buyback program for its U.S. depositary shares over the next 12 months.
StoneCo (STNE) soared nearly 41% after the Brazilian fintech overnight reported fourth-quarter year-over-year revenue of 87% to R$1.87 billion, beating analysts’ average of 1.71 billion reais. It also forecasts revenue for its current Q1 ending March 31 in a range of R$1.85 billion to R$1.9 billion, also exceeding Street View’s R$1.75 billion.
