Financial stocks remain narrowly mixed shortly before Thursday’s closing bell, with the NYSE Financial Index dropping 0.1% while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF was climbing about 0.1%.
The Philadelphia Housing Index was falling 0.3%.
In company news, Morgan Stanley (MS) was swinging between small gains and losses following reports it is planning to transfer about EUR100 billion of assets to its subsidiary in Frankfurt, Germany, early in 2021, soon after the Brexit transition period is scheduled to expire. Following the transfer, the assets will be supervised by Morgan Stanley Europe SE, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the company’s plans.
Open Lending (LPRO) rose nearly 13% after the risk analytics company late Wednesday said it paid $37.5 million to repurchase about 1.34 million of the 9.5 million shares sold through an upsized secondary offering of stock previously held by Bregal Sagemount, Nebula Holdings and two other existing shareholders. The offering was priced at $28 a share, or 5.8% under its last closing price, and was increased in size by an extra 1.5 million shares.
Santander Consumer USA (SC) was 1.3% higher after a Barclays upgrade to equalweight from underweight previously and also increasing its price target for the special lender by $5 to $23 a share.
Norwood Financial (NWFL) rose fractionally after the bank holding company earlier increased its quarterly dividend by 4% to $0.26 per Share, payable Feb. 1 to investors of record on Jan. 15.
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