Sector Update: Financial Stocks Rise Premarket Thursday

09:19 AM EDT, 09/17/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were rising premarket Thursday, with the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) advancing by 0.8%. The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 2.5% and its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was 2.2% lower. Affirm (AFRM) shares were up more than 5% after the company launched a transformer-based machine-learning model for credit underwriting in the US. Carlyle Group (CG) and infrastructure equity fund manager CVC DIF have agreed to acquire BauWatch from Haniel, CVC DIF said. Carlyle Group stock was up more than 2% pre-bell. HSBC (HSBC) has cancelled the $38,000 school fee subsidy offered to new hires and senior staff moving to Hong Kong as part of the company's cost cutting program, a spokesperson for HSBC confirmed. Shares of HSBC were up more than 1% premarket.