Sector Update: Financial Stocks Lean Lower Pre-Bell Thursday

09:20 AM EDT, 10/01/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were leaning lower pre-bell Thursday, with the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) declining by 0.1%. The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was down 0.4% and its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was 0.3% higher. UBS (UBS) pushed back against a call from major shareholder Artisan Partners to consider moving its headquarters outside Switzerland, the Financial Times reported. Shares of UBS Group were 1% lower premarket. Barclays (BCS) is expanding its artificial intelligence partnership with Amazon-backed Anthropic to integrate secure AI systems in its global operations, the company said. Barclays stock was down more than 1% pre-bell. Bank of America's (BAC) Merrill Lynch unit agreed to pay $39 million to resolve claims that it left retirement account customers earning extremely low interest on cash holdings, Reuters reported, citing court filings. Bank of America shares were 0.9% lower premarket.