01:30 PM EDT, 05/19/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks declined in Tuesday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index decreasing 0.3% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) off 0.5%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index was falling 1.3%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) was up 0.4%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was fractionally lower at $76,933, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries was rising 3.2 basis points to 4.65%.

In corporate news, Blackstone (BX) shares were down 0.7% after Bloomberg reported Tuesday the company has dropped out of a consortium exploring a takeover of German media group Stroeer. Separately, Blackstone said late Monday it is forming a US-based joint venture with Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google to provide AI-focused data center capacity and cloud computing services. Blackstone said it will invest $5 billion in equity initially for the JV, which plans to bring its first 500 megawatts of capacity online in 2027 and expand further over time.