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Walmart store (Jeffrey Greenberg/Getty Images)

Shares of Affirm tank as Walmart drops the “buy now, pay later” giant for Swedish rival Klarna

Affirim has been Walmart’s exclusive buy now, pay later provider since 2019.

Nia Warfield

Affirm shares tumbled nearly 13% Monday morning after the buy now, pay later giant lost its deal with the world’s largest retailer.

Since 2019, Affirm has been Walmart’s exclusive buy now, pay later provider, starting with big-ticket purchases and later expanding to smaller baskets at self-checkout kiosks. Now, under the new deal, Swedish BNPL giant Klarna will take its place, underwriting loans for shoppers both in-store and online through Walmart’s fintech startup, OnePay. 

Customers can borrow for as little as three months and up to three years, with annual interest rates from 10% up to 36%. The rollout will reportedly kick off in coming weeks, with plans to hit Walmart stores by the holiday season. Klarna has 93 million active customers and has stacked up partnerships with a number of popular retailers, including Target, Amazon, Home Depot, and Macy’s.

On Friday, Klarna publicly filed for its long-awaited IPO, with sources saying the company hopes to raise at least $1 billion and is targeting a valuation of more than $15 billion. Despite the sell-off, Affirm shares are still up nearly 27% over the past year.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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