What happened
Shares of Mastercard (MA -0.63%) were trading nearly 3.5% higher as of 12:12 p.m. ET Tuesday. Those gains followed the announcement of several new partnerships for the company, and on a wider stage, the appearance of some potential progress in diplomatic talks to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
So what
Bread Financial and Victoria's Secret announced Tuesday that they will issue a new co-branded credit card. The two companies also announced they will continue their private label credit card offerings. These programs will use the Mastercard network.
Additionally, Mastercard and the Swiss enterprise software company Temenos announced they are teaming up to more quickly develop "request for pay" capabilities for their customers in the United Kingdom. Request for pay provides consumers with more freedom and options in terms of how they pay certain bills. With this partnership, the two companies also hope to provide real-time processing capabilities.
Image source: Getty Images.
Regarding Russia and Ukraine, Russia announced earlier Tuesday that it will reduce its military operations and activity in and around Kyiv. A Kremlin spokesperson also said recently that Russia had ruled out using nuclear weapons in its war on Ukraine.
Mastercard several weeks ago suspended operations in Russia due to the invasion. The country has been a material contributor to Mastercard's business: 4% of its net revenue in 2021 came from Russia-related business. Another 2% came from Ukraine-related business.
Now what
The recent partnership announcements don't strike me as significant enough to have been the prime movers of the stock Tuesday, although Mastercard's collaboration with Temenos is somewhat intriguing.
Rather, I think the stock is likely being carried higher by the broader market's momentum based on the positive news related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
