Apple and PayPal Send Mixed Messages as CE 100 Index Slips 0.7%

The headlines moving the CE 100 Index this week were dominated by Apple’s announcements at its developers conference that covered everything from AI to payments.

And yet the tech behemoth’s rise was blunted by declining names in other areas of the CE 100 roster, leaving the overall index 0.7% lower for the week.

Apple shares gained 7.9%, helping drive the Enablers segment up 0.7%.

Expanding Beyond the Smartphone

As reported, the company’s payment functions are moving beyond the smartphone, where new features will be accessible via other Apple devices (such as the iPad). Apple Pay is being made available for Windows computers and through Google’s Chrome browser.

Banks will be able to offer financing options embedded in Apple Pay along with rewards points and programs.

Among the new financing options: Affirm’s BNPL will be made available when users check out with Apple Pay. 

Affirm shares were up 2.8%, while PayPal share’s gave up 9.9%, as the Pay and Be Paid segment of the CE 100 Index slid 2.8%.  Affirm had said earlier in the month that it had launched two new payment options.   

The company announced the debut of Pay in 2 and Pay in 3, with the option to break transactions into two interest-free payments each month or to pay in full interest-free within 30 days of their purchase. It joins Affirm’s Pay in 4 and monthly installment plans. 

PayPal’s dip, among the most notable decliners this week, came as the “Tap to Cash” feature, unveiled this week by Apple, lets users transfer funds by holding two iPhones together.  Separately, PYMNTS reported earlier in the month that in Q2, 12% of consumers had made their last retail purchase using a digital wallet. Roughly 6% had used Apple Pay, and 4% had used PayPal.

Visa Rallies on SavingsEdge Announcement

Those losses were offset a bit by Visa’s 4.5% rally, as the payments network said this past week that Visa has relaunched its SavingsEdge program, aimed at helping small businesses.  The SavingsEdge program now includes a refreshed program website with greater features and functionality, and hundreds of added merchant offer via Instant Coupons and Cashback Offers in more categories.

Elsewhere, Adobe shares gained 12.9%, leading all names that advanced during the week.  The company’s latest earnings showed that revenues increased 10% from last year March quarter of $5.3 billion.

One metric, new annualized recurring revenue for the Digital Media business, which also houses Creative Cloud subscriptions, came in at roughly $4 billion, up 12% in constant currency.  CrowdStrike’s stock was roughly 10% higher, helping to hold the Work segment’s slide during the week to 0.3%.

Zoom shares lost 8.1%, continuing a volatile performance in the wake of its late May earnings announcement that  Zoom’s revenue for the quarter reached $1.14 billion, up 3.2% compared to the same period last year. While online revenue remained flat, enterprise revenue was up 5.3% year over year.

Zoom’s customer base continues to expand, with approximately 191,000 enterprise customers on board by the end of the quarter. Among its 191,000 enterprise customers, 3,883 customers contributed more than $100,000 in trailing 12 months revenue, marking an 8.5% increase compared to the previous year.