What happened
The stock market was having a pretty flat day on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 slightly in positive territory and the Nasdaq slightly lower with a half hour to go in the trading session.
However, Block (SQ 2.32%) -- better known as Square -- was a major underperformer. Shares were down by more than 5% for the day. The stock is now just 3% away from its 52-week low.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
There isn't much company-specific news behind the move. A regulatory filing showed CFO Amrita Ahuja sold just over 3,600 shares of the stock on Feb. 2 (about $460,000 worth), but this was an automatic sale to fulfill tax obligations, not a personal decision.
Rather, today's move seems to be fueled by general negativity and pessimism in the payments and fintech space. Other financial disruptors like PayPal (PYPL 2.90%) and e-commerce disruptor Shopify (SHOP 1.11%) were underperforming the market as well.
Now what
While today's move doesn't appear news-related, Block has had some negative catalysts recently while its stock has been falling. It closed on the acquisition of buy-now-pay-later company Afterpay, which investors don't appear to be sold on, and PayPal's disappointing earnings report sent shockwaves through the entire payments industry.
Block is set to report its latest results on Feb. 24, so while the stock has certainly performed poorly, we'll get a little more insight into how the actual business is performing then. If it turns out that the company's growth trajectory is still on track, this could end up being a strong long-term buying opportunity.
