XLF - American Equity Investment rises most in week's financial movers

2023-07-01 10:13:00 ET

A takeover offer sparked the week's biggest move in mid-cap and up financial stocks while the potential ban on payment for order flow led one market-making and execution firm to mark one of the biggest declines of the week.

And even though 23 of the biggest banks in the U.S. passed the Federal Reserve's annual stress tests, none of those stocks made big enough moves to show up in the five biggest increases or the five biggest drops.

For the week, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF ( NYSEARCA: XLF ) rose 2.1%, but has dropped 1.4% in the first half of 2023. By comparison, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF ( NYSEARCA: SPY ) gained 1.1% in the past week and 16% since the beginning of the year.

American Equity Investment Life Holding ( NYSE: AEL ) topped the biggest gainers among financial stocks with market cap over $2B in the week ended June 30, surging 28% to $52.11 after Brookfield Reinsurance ( NYSE: BNRE ) made a $55-per-share bid for the insurance and annuities firm.

F&G Annuities & Life ( NYSE: FG ), also offering annuities and life insurance, rose 19% ;

Upstart Holdings ( NASDAQ: UPST ), which offers a lending platform for banks, jumped 19% for the week, bringing its six-month performance to 171%;

Coinbase Global ( NASDAQ: COIN ) rose 16% in a week in which bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) stayed essentially flat. On Thursday, Coinbase asserted that SEC has no authority to regulate crypto ; and

Banco Santander ( NYSE: SAN ) rounded out the top five gainers with an 11% rise .

Patria Investments ( NASDAQ: PAX ), an asset manager based in the Cayman Islands, fell the most among financial stocks with a 4.7% decline for the week, even as it joined the Russell 2000 and 3000 indexes when the U.S. market opened on Monday;

Virtu Financial ( NASDAQ: VIRT ) slipped 3.7% as the EU reached a provisional deal for a general ban o n payment for order flow, putting it on track to be phased out by June 30, 2026;

CorVel ( NASDAQ: CRVL ), which provides workers compensation and other insurance products, dropped 3.4% ;

Enstar Group ( NASDAQ: ESGR ), an insurance and reinsurance company, dipped 2.8% ; and

Federated Hermes ( NYSE: FHI ), which was dropped from the Russell 3000 fell 2.5% in the week.

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