Monday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 1:31 p.m. EDT

Financial stocks climbed the backs of the major indices as the Federal Reserve pumped liquidity into the market and names like Blackstone (BX) and CIT Group (CIT) kept things humming along.

Blackstone closed up 1.7% to $25.71 after the newly public asset manager said its second-quarter income more than tripled to $774.4 million on sharply higher revenue. CIT, a New York-based lender, jumped on a CIBC World Markets upgrade to sector outperform. The analyst said, among other things, that most of the company's risks are already baked into its share price.

CIT shares were up $1.82, or 5.4%, to $35.86 in support of the NYSE Financial Sector Index, which added 0.6% to 8880.46. The KBW Bank Index closed down 1.1%.

Fortress Investment Group (FIG) ran up 7.7% ahead of tomorrow's earnings report.

Knight Capital (NITE) traded up earlier in the day but closed down 2.1% after the New Jersey broker said Goldman Sachs (GS) agreed to buy a minority stake in its indirectly held subsidiary Direct Edge ECN. Financial terms weren't disclosed. The purchase, along with a planned ownership increase by Citadel Derivatives Group, will cut Knight's holdings in the trading platform to less than 50%.

NovaStar Financial (NFI), meanwhile, added 8.7% after CEO Scott Hartman said he expects that the subprime-mortgage lender will "continue in the normal course of business" despite its ongoing struggles, including a big second-quarter loss that it just reported last week. Shares closed at $6.77.