Big Tech Drags CE 100 4.3% Lower Amid September’s Rocky Start  

The holiday-shortened week was action-packed, at least in terms of market volatility, and for the CE 100 Index the overarching theme might be summed up with the phrase “look out below.”

The CE 100 Index was 4.3% lower, and all pillars swooned, finishing universally lower in the four days that marked the return to work and trading after the Labor Day holiday.

Economic data released this week, specifically the jobs report, spun markets. The labor market is in a slowdown, as evidenced by August’s addition of 142,000 jobs last month, which was lower than the roughly 161,000 expected, and July’s tally was revised lower, too.  The Fed looks poised to cut rates this month, but the question remains as to whether we’ll see a 0.25% cut or 0.50% cut and what the impact might be.

Big Tech held sway in the headlines, and as some of the marquee names in the sector lost ground, the Enablers segment of the CE 100 lost 4.8%.  

Reports of a lawsuit targeting Nvidia and Microsoft hit those companies’ shares, while Meta declined by 7.8%.

Nvidia shares gave up 13.8% and Microsoft shares slipped 3.7%.

Nvidia, Microsoft, and patent risk management company RPX are facing a lawsuit accusing them of “rampant” patent infringement and antitrust law violations. Xockets filed the suit on Thursday. In the lawsuit, Xockets alleged that the companies stole its data processor technology to help develop artificial intelligence (AI) products and conspired with each other to drive down the price of its technology.

 As for Meta, the company said this week that it will shut down Meta Spark, its platform offering third-party tools and content, in January of 2025.

When the platform is shut down, the augmented reality (AR) effects built by third parties that it hosts will no longer be available, the company said in a Tuesday blog post.

Meta’s own AR Effects will continue to be available to users across the company’s apps, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, according to FAQs released in conjunction with the post.

C3.ai posted better results than expected, but its stock was still roughly 8% lower by the time the week was done.

The Redwood City, California, company said revenue grew 21% year over year to $87.2 million in its fiscal first quarter that ended in July. Subscription revenue, which is the bulk of C3.ai’s business, increased 20% to $73.5 million. The company closed 71 agreements in Q1, including 52 new pilot projects — a 117% year-over-year increase in pilot count.

In the Pay and be Paid segment of the CE 100, which lost 4.3%, Sezzle shares declined 7%, reversing some of the positive contributions we’d seen at the end of the month via the BNPL sector. 

As reported as August came to a close,   Sezzle has struck a strategic partnership to have WebBank serve as its exclusive bank to originate and finance products offered through the Sezzle platform, including its Pay-in-2 and Pay-in-4 products.  The pacts are underpinned by a loan and receivables sale agreement and marketing and servicing agreement, as noted in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the agreement, WebBank will also serve as the exclusive issuer of all Sezzle subscription products and of Sezzle card products, per the filing.

PayPal’s news of new payment integrations did little to help its share price performance this past week, as shares slipped 4.9%.

PayPal is integrating its debit card with Apple Wallet to enter the in-store payment arena.

The company announced its omnichannel “PayPal Everywhere” solution, which includes the expansion of its rewards program, letting users pick a monthly category of spending, such as groceries or clothing, to receive 5% cashback.

In addition to expanded rewards, PayPal has introduced an auto-reload feature that lets users set a balance threshold that automatically tops up if it drops below the customer’s chosen amount.

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