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Financial stocks rose on Thursday, extending the previous session's gains on Labor Department data showing a sharp drop in weekly U.S. jobless claims. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, which tracks financial stocks in the S&P 500, was up 0.1%. Morgan Stanley was up nearly 0.8%. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM +0.37% Chief Executive Jamie Dimon apologized for the firm's "London Whale" debacle in a letter to shareholders. Dimon called the incident "extremely embarrassing" for the firm and said it has opened it to requests from regulators to improve risk standards. The letter comes just before J.P. Morgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, kicks off first-quarter earnings season for banks on Friday. Wells Fargo & Co. WFC +0.32% also releases its first-quarter results on Friday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +0.33% reached a deal with activist shareholders to avoid a public showdown at the firm's annual shareholder meeting and allow Lloyd Blankfein to keep both his roles as Chairman and CEO, said a report in Reuters. Shares for the firm were down 0.6%. CtW Investment Group agreed to withdraw its proxy proposal to split the role after changes in the firm's governance policies. Goldman Sachs's lead director James Schiro will get new powers in the deal, including setting the board's agenda and writing his own letter to shareholders, reports said. CtW is an adviser to union pension funds with $250 billion in assets. Several shareholder activists have been increasingly vocal about splitting the Chairman and CEO role. J.P. Morgan Chase is facing a standoff with shareholders this year over Jamie Dimon's dual role. Morgan Stanley's MS +1.44% James Gorman also holds both titles. Wall St banks, other financial firms and law firms, as well as Capitol Hill staffers, got the Federal Reserve minutes early, said media reports. At least 12 banks, including Citigroup, UBS, Barclays PLC BCS +2.83% , J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo Inc. got the report a day earlier before the actual release of the document, said a report in The Wall Street Journal.