By Andrew Welsch

Charles Schwab's stock was rising after the company reported an uptick in core net new assets for February.

Shares of the wealth management company were up 4.8% at about 10 a.m. EST Friday. Shares of Schwab and other financial companies have struggled recently amid a broad decline in equity markets as investors weigh the impact of tariffs, inflation, and potentially slower economic growth. The S&P 500 has fallen 5.1%, and the Vanguard Financials Index Fund ETF, which tracks a broad index of financial stocks, is down 2.8%.

On Friday, Schwab said it hauled in $48 billion in core net new assets during February, a 44% increase from the $33.4 billion the company reported for February 2024. For January, Schwab reported $30.6 billion.

Schwab's monthly asset figures are closely watched by shareholders and analysts who are looking for signs of further growth. Schwab's new CEO, Rick Wurster, has emphasized plans to grow the business this year.

The Westlake, Texas-based company is one of the nation's largest wealth managers and serves both retail investors and independent financial advisors. Schwab said total client assets totaled $10.28 trillion as of the end of February. That's up 16% from February 2024, but down 1% compared to January 2025.

Customers opened 362,000 new brokerage accounts during February, up 5% year over year but down 16% from January.

The decline in account openings may be because of February being a shorter month than January, but shifting investor sentiment also may be playing a part.

Schwab said investors have stayed engaged against an increasingly volatile backdrop. February daily average trades increased by 1% month over month to 7.45 million.

The company said transactional sweep cash increased by $4.7 billion to end February at $404.3 billion. Analysts have been keeping tabs on Schwab's sweep cash levels as a proxy for its ability to pay off short-term debt it accumulated last year because of cash sorting. That is a process in which customers move idle dollars from low-yielding sweep accounts to higher-yielding options such as money-market funds. When deposit outflows exceed Schwab's cash on hand, it has to rely on short-term debt.

Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com

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March 14, 2025 10:12 ET (14:12 GMT)

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