Financial stocks rose modestly in Tuesday afternoon trading with the NYSE Financial Index up 0.2% and the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) adding 0.4%.

The Philadelphia Housing Index increased 0.04%, while the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLRE) fell 0.5%.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD)fell 0.4% to $88,057, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries shed 2.4 basis points to 4.307%.

In economic news, the Conference Board's measure of consumer confidence fell to 92.9 in March from 100.1 in February, below the 94.0 expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg and the fourth straight decline.

In corporate news, HSBC (HSBC) plans to boost investment banking operations in Asia and the Middle East following its exit from Europe and the US, Bloomberg reported, citing an interview with Chief Executive Georges Elhedery. Separately, HSBC may outsource parts of its fixed-income trading order flow to an outside market maker to save costs and compete with bigger rivals, Bloomberg reported. HSBC shares were rising 0.7%.

Alphabet's (GOOG) Google Cloud and CME (CME) said they will launch services related to wholesale payments and tokenization of assets using the Google Cloud Universal Ledger. CME shares were shedding 0.9%.

Affirm (AFRM) said Tuesday that it signed an agreement to make its payment services available to merchants within JPMorgan Chase's (JPM) payments arm. Affirm shares were down 2.7% and JPMorgan was adding 0.8%.