-- Financial stocks were advancing in late Monday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index rising 1% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) adding 1.6%.
The Philadelphia Housing Index was increasing 0.9%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) was fractionally lower.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was rising 3.3% to $73,042, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries decreased 2 basis points to 4.297%.
In economic news, the pace of US existing home sales fell by 3.6% to a 3.98 million seasonally adjusted annual rate in March from 4.13 million in February, compared with a smaller decrease expected to a 4.05 million rate in a survey compiled by Bloomberg as of 7:30 am ET, data from the National Association of Realtors released Monday showed.
In sector news, BlackRock (BLK) raised its rating on US stocks to overweight from neutral, citing recent US-Iran talks as evidence of economic incentives to end the conflict. "We flagged two signposts to dial up risk-taking after the Middle East conflict led us to reduce risk and turn neutral on U.S. equities a few weeks ago," BlackRock said Monday in its weekly commentary report. "First: evidence of actions that could re-open shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. Second: signs that any lingering macro impact is contained. We eye developments on both fronts. Plus, corporate earnings expectations are up even through the conflict, partly on the AI theme."
In corporate news, HSBC (HSBC) shares rose 0.8% after it said Monday it has launched its tokenized deposit service in the US as part of plans to expand its digital money offerings.
Goldman Sachs (GS), which reported higher Q1 earnings and net revenue pre-bell, is launching a new three-tranche offering in the US investment-grade debt market, with bond maturities spanning four to eight years, Bloomberg reported. Goldman shares were down 1.4%.
Blackstone (BX) is partnering with I Squared Capital on a potential offer for the core advertising business of German media group Stroer, Bloomberg reported. Blackstone shares gained 5.8%.
KKR (KKR) said its real estate arm plans to significantly ramp up property acquisitions in Japan, targeting a market it estimates at about 450 trillion yen ($2.8 trillion), as companies increasingly divest non-core assets, Bloomberg reported. KKR shares climbed 7.3%.