Sector Update: Financial Stocks Advance Premarket Wednesday

09:22 AM EDT, 09/02/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Financial stocks were advancing premarket Wednesday, with the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) 0.3% higher. The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 0.9% and its bearish counterpart Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was 0.7% lower. Manulife Financial (MFC) shares were down more than 3% after the company priced a $750 million public offering in the US of 6.146% subordinated notes due 2041. Citigroup's (C) Citibank NA London Branch has been fined about 4.7 million British pounds ($6.3 million) under the UK's Russia sanctions regime, Britain's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. Citigroup stock was 0.4% higher pre-bell. Prudential (PUK) has increased its share buyback program to about $1.47 billion from $1.2 billion. Shares of Prudential were slightly lower premarket.