What Happened
It was a volatile day for Block (SQ +0.39%) on Tuesday as the stock surged higher in the morning and then fell back down as the trading day went on. It was up 1.6% to $74.21 at around 10:15 a.m. ET, then fell to $70.89 per share at noon -- down 2.9% from the previous day's close. It ended the day at $70.94, down 2.84% on the day.
Some positive news about one of its products may have caused the initial jump, but Block sank with the overall market after that on a negative Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) report.
So what
Block issued a press release Tuesday morning announcing that it was launching its buy now, pay later (BNPL) service in the U.K. across all platforms within its Square seller ecosystem -- including online and in-store.
The BNPL service is called Clearpay in the U.K., but is known as Afterpay in the U.S. and elsewhere.
NYSE: SQ
Key Data Points
It enables Square sellers in the U.K. to let customers pay for purchases in four interest-free installments over a six-week period. Clearpay will be embedded as a payment option for online sales as well as at in-store checkout through Square's point-of-sale software.
The good news may have been tempered by an overall market malaise this week as investors anticipate less-than-good news from some key economic indicators. One of those indicators, the PMI, came out Tuesday and the news wasn't great. The index, put out by S&P Global, measures economic trends among businesses in the manufacturing and services sectors -- and both were at 27-month lows in this latest report.
Now what
There is more news coming later this week that could have a more direct impact on Block. On Friday, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak at the Fed's Jackson Hole Economic Symposium and the market will be closely tuned in to what Powell has to say about the economy and interest rates.
Also on Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the July numbers for personal consumption expenditures, which measures the changes in the price of goods and services purchased by consumers. It rose 6.8% in June year over year, the highest increase in 40 years, reflecting the rise in the consumer price index. So investors will be hoping that comes down in July.
