US payments firms rise after first Fed rate cut in four years

Discover Financial Services

18/09/2024 19:44

(Updates)
    ** Shares of U.S. payments companies climb after Federal
Reserve cuts interest rates for the first time since 2020
    ** Credit card issuer Capital One Financial  COF.N  up 2.1%,
while digital payments firms PayPal Holdings  PYPL.O  and Block
 SQ.N  rise 2.4% and 1.2%, respectively
    ** BNPL company Affirm  AFRM.O  up 2.6%, while credit lender
American Express  AXP.N  turns positive
    ** The Fed delivered a highly anticipated 50 bps rate cut on
Wednesday - a move that could ease pressure on consumers and
boost their spending
    ** "A lot of the recent signals have been that inflation is
well enough contained, not ideal, but well enough contained,"
says Charlie Wise, senior vice president and head of global
research and consulting at TransUnion  TRU.N 
    ** "We could very easily see a soft landing" if the consumer
continues to spend, Wise says
    ** Meanwhile, Wall Street's main indexes extended their
gains  .N 

 (Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru)
 ((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com))