What happened
Shares of Upstart Holdings (UPST 2.76%), an AI-powered lending platform, were rising today on seemingly no company-specific news. Instead, some investors may be looking at the company's recent share price declines and thinking that now is a good buying opportunity.
The fintech stock was up by 3.6% as of 12:10 p.m. ET.
So what
Shares of Upstart have crashed over the past six months, falling 73% as investors have been worried about the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes as it tries to tamp down inflation.
Image source: Getty Images.
Rising interest rates have weighed down on the stock market in general, but they are especially bad for Upstart because they cause consumers to spend less money and take out fewer loans.
But it appears that some investors now think that Upstart's huge sell-off over the past six months is creating an attractive opportunity to pick up some of the company's shares.
Now what
What's interesting about Upstart's share price jump today is that it's coming just as the latest data indicates that inflation remains persistently high.
The latest producer price index data was released today, showing that pricing increased by 0.4% for September -- much faster than some analysts' estimate of 0.2%.
This means that wholesale prices -- which exclude things like trade services, food, and energy -- are continuing to rise even after the Federal Reserve has raised rates to try to keep prices down.
The Fed will likely use some of this data as a reason to continue making aggressive interest rate hikes, which could end up putting more pressure on Upstart's business in the near term.
Upstart could still end up being a good long-term investment, but investors should prepare for more share price swings until the Fed tempers its interest rate increases.
