Sector Update: Financial Stocks Rise Late Afternoon

03:56 PM EDT, 10/28/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks rose in late Wednesday afternoon trading with the NYSE Financial Index gaining 0.1% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) adding 0.3%. The Philadelphia Housing Index fell 2%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) dropped 1.2%. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) rose 0.6% to $81,209, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries rose 5 basis points to 5.05%. In economic news, the Federal Open Market Committee's focus remains on inflation, which is still too high and has increased in recent weeks, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said Wednesday at a press conference following the committee's meeting. Warsh said most of the discussion at this week's meeting centered on inflation, while labor market conditions remain positive. He said it is the FOMC's job to ensure inflation does not broaden and that inflation expectations remain anchored. The FOMC maintained the target range for its federal funds rate at 3.75% to 4%, with dissents from Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, who preferred a 25-basis point rate increase. In corporate news, Deutsche Bank (DB) shares gained 4.4% after the company reported higher Q3 earnings and revenue. Aon (AON) shares rose 5% after the company posted Q3 adjusted earnings and revenue that surpassed consensus estimates. Anthropic has selected JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to lead US sales of shares to individual investors in its planned initial public offering, Bloomberg reported. According to the report, the company is considering allocating about 15% to 20% of the overall IPO shares to retail investors. JPMorgan shares rose 1%. Barclays (BCS) has been assessing interest among insurers in recent weeks as it looks to buy default protection on over $10 billion of debt to finance AI infrastructure, Bloomberg reported. Barclays shares were up 2%.