Northern Trust is trading higher this morning, buoyed by the announcement late yesterday that the company has been appointed as the asset servicer for the Warwickshire Pension Fund, which manages approximately 4.8 billion dollars in assets. This positive development for the firm's asset management business arrives despite a broader cooling in the financial services sector, which saw most peers finish the previous session in negative territory. The stock is also benefiting from recent institutional interest, following reports that Virginia Retirement Systems acquired a new stake of 256,500 shares during the second quarter.