Financial services stocks eked out gains Tuesday as the broader market rose against a backdrop of midterm elections and good news from a U.S. airplane manufacturer.
The American Banker index of 225 bank stocks rose 0.02% and the thrift index gained 0.15%.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 climbed 0.22%. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.42% and set an intraday record of 12,196.32 points; that bested the previous mark, set Oct. 26, by more than 29 points.
The Dow was boosted in part by news that FedEx Corp. had rerouted its order for 15 new planes to Boeing Co. of Chicago from Airbus SAS, part of EADS Co. of France.
First Financial Bancorp of Hamilton, Ohio, rose 5.4% Tuesday after Standard & Poor’s announced late Monday that it would include First Financial in the S&P SmallCap 600 index. First Financial would replace the business process outsourcer, NCO Group Inc., which is to be sold this quarter.
Wilmington Trust Corp. of Delaware rose 2.6% after an analyst upgraded it to “outperform,” from “market perform,” based on its stock’s valuation.
Jacqueline Reeves, an analyst at BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc.’s Ryan Beck & Co. Inc., wrote in a research note issued Tuesday that shares of Wilmington Trust dipped 9% from Oct. 13 to Nov. 3.
The company managed expenses well and improved its efficiency in the third quarter, Ms. Reeves wrote. She also wrote that Wilmington Trust is unlikely to be bought, because its independence helps it win wealth management and corporate trust business.
U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis said late Monday that it had agreed to buy United Financial Corp. of Great Falls, Mont., the parent company of Heritage Bank, for $71 million in stock. Buying United Financial would almost double U.S. Bancorp’s Montana branch count.
Shares of U.S. Bancorp rose 0.3%. United Financial surged 11.5%. Their deal is expected to close next quarter.
First Niagara Financial Group Inc. of Lockport, N.Y., said Monday that it would open a “regional market center” in Syracuse, N.Y., that would bring together salespeople from its different divisions into a single office.
About 65 employees from its commercial lending, cash management, leasing, and benefits consulting divisions will work from one downtown Syracuse office starting early next year, First Niagara said. Its stock climbed 1.3%.
Signature Bank of New York issued a press release Tuesday to clarify that it is not the same company as two similarly named outfits in Missouri and Illinois that have been in the news.
BancorpSouth Inc. of Tupelo, Miss., said Oct. 31 that it was buying the privately held City Bancorp, the parent of Signature Bank in Springfield, Mo., for $170 million. The other Signature is new, Signature Bancorp. Inc. of Chicago. It opened for business Oct. 21 and announced Nov. 1 that it had raised $23.8 million from private investors.
However, the clarification did not help the stock of New York’s Signature Bank, which fell 1.3%. BancorpSouth dropped 0.5%.
Other decliners included Lakeland Bancorp Inc. of Oak Ridge, N.J., and Community Banks Inc. of Harrisburg, Pa., which each fell 2.1%.
Other gainers included Security Bancorp Inc. of Macon, Ga., 2.6%, and CVB Financial Corp. of Ontario, Calif., 2.4%.
