What happened
Shares of the buy now, pay later company Affirm Holdings (AFRM 0.91%) were roughly 12.5% higher as of 2:32 p.m. ET today, as tech stocks rallied and the company announced upgrades to its platform.
So what
After a difficult and volatile week for stocks, the Nasdaq Composite had risen 2.35% on Wednesday as of this writing. The Federal Reserve's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee wrapped up its first meeting of the year and didn't appear to drop any surprises, but hinted that it is likely to begin raising its benchmark overnight lending rate in March, which many suspected.
Affirm earlier today also announced the release of upgrades to its app and a new Chrome extension. The upgrades on the app include giving consumers more insight into their finances and allowing them to create a virtual card that can be used for purchases online or in stores, among other new features.
Image source: Getty Images.
Max Levchin, CEO of Affirm, said in a statement: "We know that consumers want a one-stop shop to manage their finances. Affirm saw this firsthand when we added Savings to our app, which has since attracted more than $300 million in total deposits while driving meaningful engagement."
The Google Chrome extension will allow Affirm users to use its products at any retailer, even if the company isn't listed as a payment option when customers go to complete their purchases. Bloomberg also reported that Affirm is working on upgrades that will allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through the platform.
Now what
The new products all sound like good additions that will make the product more valuable for the customer. But I still have some concerns over consumers missing payments, potential regulatory issues after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requested data from Affirm, and how tech stocks with high valuations will perform in these market conditions.
The valuation is getting better, but Affirm's stock could see lots of volatility in the near term and still has several long-term questions that need to be answered.
