01:59 PM EDT, 03/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were advancing in Tuesday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) each rising 0.3% recently.

The Philadelphia Housing Index was climbing 1.5% and the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLRE) was shedding 0.2%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was declining 4% to $64,717, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries was dropping 3 basis points to 4.30%.

In economic news, US housing starts in February rose by 10.7% from the previous month to a 1.521 million annual rate, higher than expectations compiled by Bloomberg as of 7:50 a.m. ET for a 1.440 million rate.

In corporate news, Zillow ( ZG ) shares rose 2.6% after the data showing a larger-than-expected uptick in new home construction during February.

BlackRock ( BLK ) was informed Tuesday that the Texas Permanent School Fund is ending the company's management of roughly $8.5 billion in assets, the chairman of the State Board of Education said. BlackRock ( BLK ) shares were fractionally higher.

U.S. Bancorp's ( USB ) U.S. Bank unit and Oppenheimer (OPY) have been ordered by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to pay fines for recordkeeping and supervision failures due to the companies' alleged use of unapproved communication methods. U.S. Bancorp ( USB ) shares were shedding 0.3% and Oppenheimer was up 2.6%.