Sector Update: Financial Stocks Mixed Pre-Bell Friday

09:12 AM EDT, 08/28/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were mixed pre-bell Friday, with the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) up 0.1%. The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) rose by 0.3%, and its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was 0.1% lower. PayPal (PYPL) fell as much as 14% after Bloomberg News reported that buyout firm Advent and payment-processor Stripe have abandoned their bid to buy the company. Affirm (AFRM) shares were up more than 11% after the company reported late Thursday a surge in fiscal Q4 earnings and sales, and issued an upbeat fiscal Q1 sales outlook. Iren (IREN) shares dropped 6% after the company reported late Thursday Q4 revenue of $137.2 million, down from $187 million a year ago.