09:10 AM EDT, 05/16/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were edging higher pre-bell Thursday with the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund ( XLF ) recently up 0.1%.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares ( FAS ) was 0.2% higher and its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares ( FAZ ) was down 0.1%.

American International Group ( AIG ) said it has agreed to sell a 20% stake, or 120 million shares, of Corebridge Financial ( CRBG ) to Nippon Life Insurance for $31.47 per share, for a total of $3.80 billion. Corebridge Financial ( CRBG ) was up more than 10% premarket.

Blackstone (BX) has agreed to purchase a majority stake in Israeli enterprise software company Priority Software at an $800 million valuation, Bloomberg reported. Blackstone was down 0.6% premarket.

Mastercard ( MA ) agreed to charge Swiss debit card users 0.12% fees on domestic physical transactions with a maximum of 0.30 Swiss francs ($0.33) for purchases of at least 300 Swiss francs, the country's Competition Commission said. Mastercard ( MA ) was flat pre-bell.