Tuesday's Financial Winners & Losers

Financial stocks trended downward Tuesday, mostly moving in concert with the trailing S&P 500, but a few names managed to eke out gains.

Among these was Atlanta's IntercontinentalExchange (ICE Quote), which jumped 5.2% to $149.13 on word Standard & Poor's will add the commodities exchange to its 500 index after the close today. optionsXpress (OXPS Quote), a Chicago-based online broker, will be added to the S&P SmallCap 600 tracker after Friday's close. Its shares climbed 4.5% to $25.58.

XL Capital (XL Quote) also traded higher after saying it will buy back up to $500 million worth of its shares. Shares of the Bermuda-based insurer added $1.28, or 1.7%, to $78.91.

In earnings, New York lender Financial Federal (FIF Quote) gained 2.4% to $29.66 after beating Thomson Financial's estimates by a penny with a reported profit of 50 cents a share, or $12.7 million, in the quarter ended July 31.

Discover Financial Services (DFS Quote) posted better-than-expected income in its fiscal third quarter, as well, though it was 17.6% lower than last year on a per-share basis. The Illinois-based credit-card concern said it made $202.2 million, or 42 cents a share. Its stock lost 61 cents, or 2.7%, to $21.65.

Elsewhere, J.P. Morgan cut Marsh & McLennan (MMC Quote) to neutral from overweight. The analyst cited the recent departure of Marsh Inc. CEO Brian Storms -- on the heels of which Marsh was downgraded at both Citigroup and Morgan Stanley -- saying this probably indicates continuing underperformance at the brokerage unit.