03:52 PM EDT, 07/30/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were higher in late Thursday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index rising 1.1% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) up 0.5%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index was falling 1.9%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) was shedding 1.5%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was increasing 1.3% to $64,746, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries rose 4.1 basis points to 4.663%.

In economic news, the US personal consumption expenditure price index fell 0.1% month over month in June, marking the first decline since April 2020, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday. That helped cut the year-over-year rate to 3.7% from 4.1%.

US real gross domestic product increased at a 1.5% annualized rate in the quarter ended June, according to an advance government estimate released Thursday. The consensus was for 2% growth in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

In corporate news, Intercontinental Exchange ( ICE ) agreed to buy electronic trading platform MarketAxess ( MKTX ) for about $6 billion, creating a powerhouse that aims to serve "every segment of the fixed income market." Intercontinental shares rose 1.2%, and MarketAxess ( MKTX ) surged 29%.

Goldman Sachs ( GS ) Asset Management has launched AlphaAI, an AI investing platform to drive returns in public and private market businesses, Reuters reported. Goldman shares climbed 4.9%.

A Morgan Stanley ( MS )-led (MS) group of banks is in talks to lend $15 billion to a data-center developer to build a campus and power plant for Anthropic in Texas, The Wall Street Journal reported. Morgan Stanley ( MS ) shares rose 3.8%.

Mastercard ( MA ) reported better-than-expected Q2 results on Thursday, buoyed by double-digit growth in cross-border volume and healthy spending. Its shares rose 2.6%.

Blue Owl Capital's (OWL) data center firm Stack Infrastructure is seeking a syndicated loan of 8.5 billion Australian dollars ($5.9 billion) to back its third data center project in Melbourne, Bloomberg reported. Blue Owl shares rose 6.2%.