Key Highlights

  • Affirm Holdings delivered the group's most eye-catching quarter, with gross merchandise Volume up 36% to $14.1 billion and Revenue up 33% to $1.166 billion.
  • Newmark Group's second-quarter revenue rose 17.0% to $888.4 million, pointing to a recovering commercial real-estate transaction market.
  • StepStone Group grew fiscal first-quarter revenue to $378.9 million from $364.3 million, though GAAP figures can understate its private-markets Earnings power.
  • McGrath RentCorp and Gaming and Leisure Properties are both included as sector-adjacent comparisons rather than core financial-services names.

The Nasdaq Composite is more than a technology index. Woven through it are finance-adjacent businesses whose fortunes turn on interest rates, Credit appetite and the pace of dealmaking. As traders position for the Federal Open Market Committee meeting scheduled for September 15-16, 2026, five very different Nasdaq tickers offer a useful cross-section of that theme.

Newmark (NASDAQ:NMRK), StepStone (NASDAQ:STEP), McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC), Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) and Gaming and Leisure Properties (NASDAQ:GLPI) span commercial real-estate services, private-markets asset management, specialty rental finance, consumer Fintech and net-lease real estate. Two, McGrath and Gaming and Leisure Properties, sit adjacent to core financial services rather than inside it. Together, their recent results sketch how the sector enters autumn 2026.

The Sector Backdrop: A Fed on Hold, and a Market Waiting

The macro setup matters here more than usual. The Federal Reserve left the federal funds target range unchanged at 3.50%-3.75% in July 2026, a fifth consecutive hold, with three FOMC members dissenting in favour of a hike. That leaves the September 16 decision genuinely two-sided, and finance-linked equities especially exposed to whichever way it breaks. Higher-for-longer rates cut in opposite directions across these five. For lenders and asset managers, elevated yields can widen net interest margins yet dampen origination and fundraising. For REITs and rental businesses, a steady or rising Cost of Capital pressures valuations and refinancing while supporting rental economics. That tension, not a single directional bet, is the real story this month. There is a second thread worth naming: the health of the consumer and the corporate borrower. Financial-services businesses are, at bottom, bets on the willingness of households and companies to transact, borrow and deploy capital. When confidence holds, Brokers close deals, managers raise funds, lenders originate and rents get paid on time. When it wobbles, every one of those lines slows at once. The five names here let investors triangulate that sentiment from five different vantage points, retail credit at Affirm, institutional allocations at StepStone, commercial-property activity at Newmark, project-driven rental Demand at McGrath, and long-dated Lease income at Gaming and Leisure Properties.

Newmark (NASDAQ:NMRK): Commercial Real Estate Finds Its Footing

Newmark Group is a commercial real-estate advisory and services firm, and its second-quarter 2026 results (reported July 29, 2026) pointed to a recovering transaction market. Total revenue rose 17.0% year over year to $888.4 million; GAAP Net Income was $27.1 million, or $0.11 per share; and adjusted Earnings Per Share climbed 25.8% to $0.39. Management reaffirmed a full-year 2026 outlook of $3,775–$3,875 million in revenue (15%-18% growth), adjusted EPS of $1.87–$1.98, and adjusted EBITDA of $656–$694 million. Net Leverage stood at 1.0x at June 30, 2026, with $259.7 million of cash against $867.3 million of corporate debt. The double-digit top-line growth suggests capital-markets and leasing activity are thawing after a subdued stretch, though the modest GAAP net figure hints at Margin pressure that some Sell-Side commentary has flagged. If financing conditions ease, Newmark's investment-sales and debt-brokerage pipelines could accelerate into 2027, but that thesis leans directly on where rates settle after September.

StepStone Group (NASDAQ:STEP): Private Markets Keep Compounding

StepStone Group, a private-markets Investment manager, illustrates why headline GAAP numbers can mislead for this Business model. For its fiscal first quarter of 2027 (reported August 6, 2026), StepStone posted total revenue of $378.9 million, up from $364.3 million a year earlier, but a GAAP net loss of $(170.4) million, or $(1.41) per share, a loss driven largely by non-cash, accounting-driven items common to managers with equity-linked and carried-interest compensation. On the metric management emphasises, adjusted net income was $60.3 million, or $0.48 per share, up from $48.5 million and $0.40 a year earlier. Assets under management reached $245.4 billion, up from $233.3 billion at the close of fiscal 2026, with fee-earning AUM of $153.6 billion and total capital responsibility of $913.2 billion. The board declared a $0.33 quarterly Dividend plus a $0.55 supplemental dividend, payable September 15, 2026. Rising AUM and fee-earning assets are the engine that matters, and both grew. Continued institutional and private-wealth allocations to private markets would support fee growth, though fundraising cycles remain sensitive to public-market Volatility and the rate path.

McGrath RentCorp (NASDAQ:MGRC): Specialty Rental, Sector-Adjacent

McGrath RentCorp is an equipment-rental company, modular buildings, portable storage and electronic test equipment, making it a sector-adjacent, rental-finance comparison rather than a pure financial-services name. Its recurring-rental model nonetheless echoes the Annuity Economics investors prize in finance. Second-quarter 2026 results (reported July 29, 2026) showed total revenue of $221.1 million, down 6% year over year, with net income of $33.7 million, or $1.37 per diluted share, versus $36.0 million and $1.46 a year earlier. Rental operations revenue rose 6% to $172.5 million, led by TRS-RenTelco rental revenue up 17% to $31.8 million; the revenue decline came from lower equipment-sales volumes. McGrath narrowed full-year 2026 guidance to $955–$985 million in revenue and $363–$375 million in adjusted EBITDA, while raising gross rental capital expenditures to $200–$220 million. The higher capex signals confidence in rental demand even as sales soften. Steady rental cash flows should cushion cyclicality, but construction and infrastructure activity, themselves rate-sensitive, will drive the pace.

Affirm Holdings (NASDAQ:AFRM): Fintech's Profitability Question, Answered With Caveats

Affirm Holdings, the buy-now-pay-later lender, delivered the group's most eye-catching quarter. For fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 (ended June 30, 2026; reported August 27, 2026), gross merchandise volume grew 36% year over year to $14.1 billion, total revenue rose 33% to $1.166 billion, and revenue less Transaction Costs increased 39% to $589 million. Affirm reported GAAP net income of roughly $1.617 billion, but that figure was inflated by a large one-time, non-cash accounting item and does not reflect underlying operations. The cleaner read is adjusted Operating Income of $353 million, a roughly 30% margin, which management described as its most profitable quarter on that basis. Active consumers reached 27.8 million (+21%), and Affirm Card GMV surged 124% to $2.8 billion with 5.2 million active card users. For fiscal 2027, Affirm guided to GMV exceeding $64 billion and revenue near 8.5% of GMV. The Card is becoming a genuine second growth engine. The key risk remains consumer-credit health: any deterioration in repayment or funding costs would test the model quickly.

Gaming and Leisure Properties (NASDAQ:GLPI): A Net-Lease REIT for Income Seekers

Gaming and Leisure Properties is a real estate investment trust that owns casino and gaming properties leased to operators, a net-lease business included here as a sector-adjacent, rate-sensitive real-estate comparison rather than a financial-services company. In the second quarter of 2026 (reported July 30, 2026), GLPI generated total revenue of $430.5 million and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) of $304.0 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $405.5 million. It declared a $0.82 quarterly dividend, an annualised $3.28, which the company pegged at a 7.4% Yield as of June 30, 2026. Management guided full-year 2026 AFFO to $1.219–$1.225 billion, or $4.10–$4.12 per diluted share and unit. For a REIT, AFFO and dividend coverage matter more than net income, and both look sturdy. Net-lease REITs live and die by the spread between Acquisition yields and borrowing costs; a September Fed decision that keeps rates elevated would pressure the stock's yield-based valuation even as contractual rents hold firm.

What Investors Should Watch

The September 15-16 FOMC meeting is the single most important near-term catalyst for all five. A hold or a hawkish surprise would weigh most on the rate-sensitive REIT (GLPI) and could temper Newmark's transaction-recovery narrative; easier policy would do the reverse.

Beyond the Fed, watch StepStone's fundraising and fee-earning AUM trajectory, Affirm's consumer-credit and funding metrics, McGrath's rental utilisation against softer equipment sales, and Newmark's capital-markets pipeline. Each is a distinct read on how credit and capital are flowing through the economy this autumn. A few company-specific signposts stand out. For Affirm, delinquency trends and the cost of the funding it uses to hold loans will reveal whether 39% growth in revenue less transaction costs is durable or borrowed from a benign credit window. For StepStone, the split between management fees and performance-linked income will show how much of its growth is recurring. For Newmark, the mix between leasing and the more cyclical investment-sales and Debt lines will indicate how genuine the transaction recovery is. And for the two real-estate-linked names, dividend coverage and any refinancing activity deserve close reading against wherever the Fed leaves the curve.

A Spectrum From High Growth to Income

Stacked against each other, these five Nasdaq tickers are not a single trade. They are a spectrum, from Affirm's high-growth fintech to Gaming and Leisure Properties' income-focused net lease, bound together by their sensitivity to rates, credit and capital flows. Their latest results were broadly constructive: growth at Newmark and Affirm, compounding AUM at StepStone, resilient rentals at McGrath, and dependable cash generation at Gaming and Leisure Properties. But every forward view here hinges on the same variable the whole market is watching this week. Investors should treat the September Fed decision as the hinge on which the autumn narrative for financial services and fintech turns, and size their conviction accordingly.