03:47 PM EST, 02/25/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks gained in late Wednesday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index rising 1.3% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) ahead 1.6%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index was falling 2.9%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) was shedding 0.7%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was climbing 7.2% to $69,136, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries rose 1.5 basis points to nearly 4.05%.

In economic news, mortgage applications rose 0.4% in the week ended Feb. 20, with lower mortgage rates lifting refinancing activity to offset a decline in new-home applications, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Wednesday.

In corporate news, Deutsche Bank ( DB ) and Goldman Sachs ( GS ) are considering the use of agentic AI in trading surveillance, Bloomberg reported. Deutsche is collaborating with Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Cloud to develop a large language model to track anomalies in orders and trades as well as to flag market abuse to a compliance officer, the report said. Goldman plans to use AI to monitor suspicious trade signals or market movements, sources told the media outlet. Deutsche shares rose 1.6%, and Goldman added 1.9%.