09:20 AM EDT, 07/02/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were edging higher premarket Wednesday with the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) recently advancing by 0.2%.

The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares ( FAS ) was up 0.7% and its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares ( FAZ ) was 0.5% lower.

KKR's (KKR) takeover offer for British scientific instruments maker Spectris, which values the company at 4.7 billion pounds ($6.44 billion), has been accepted. KKR shares were up more than 1% premarket.

U.S. Bancorp ( USB ) shares were 0.7% higher after the company said it plans to raise its quarterly dividend by 4% to $0.52 per share and continue its $5 billion share repurchase program following the results of the Fed's stress test.

Citigroup ( C ) shares were up 0.3% after the company said it intends to increase its quarterly dividend to $0.60 per share from $0.56, as the result of its annual Federal Reserve stress test.