Financials Up on Strong Earnings, Deal Activity -- Financials Roundup

Shares of banks and other financial institutions rose amid strong earnings and deal activity.

Apollo Global Management's fourth-quarter profit fell as higher tax provision and an investment-activities loss outweighed strong revenue gains and higher quarterly inflows.

U.K. lender NatWest agreed to buy wealth manager Evelyn Partners for about $3.67 billion from investment firms Permira and Warburg Pincus to boost its savings and investment offerings.

Italian bank UniCredit pledged to raise shareholder payouts in the years ahead as it bets on growing market share, investments and rising profit.

One strategist said the short-term outlook for the U.S. stock market is rosy due to surprisingly strong earnings trends, but that government interference in corporate America and other dangerous precedents could erode the premium global investors pay for U.S. stocks.

"Short term, it seems like [these precedents] can be ignored...All these extracurricular events that appear to be exogenous," said Joyce. "The question when do they start to impact corporate earnings, because sooner or later that will happen."

Write to Rob Curran at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-09-26 1842ET