iRobot Rockets 25% as Fed Rate Cut Lifts Market Leaders

The CE 100 Index gained 2.3% during the week when the Fed cut interest rates for the first time this year. The index handily outpaced general market gains.

The Work segment led the way, adding 5.4%. Within that segment, shares of CrowdStrike Holdings surged 15.2% and Fiverr gained 11.8%.

In news reported by PYMNTS this week, CrowdStrike and Salesforce partnered to enhance the security of artificial intelligence (AI) agents and applications built on Agentforce and Salesforce Platform. The integrations between CrowdStrike Falcon Shield and Salesforce Security Center mean that the companies will provide greater protection, visibility and faster response to secure AI-powered business, they said in the joint announcement.

CrowdStrike Falcon Shield provides visibility and automated response to threats targeting software-as-a-service applications, and Salesforce Security Center provides a comprehensive view of permissions and controls across the user’s Salesforce environment.

In the Live pillar, which gained 4.1%, iRobot shares soared 25.2%. The company said in an SEC filing last week that it has entered into a fifth amendment to its credit agreement with TCG Senior Funding, an affiliate of The Carlyle Group, and a series of other lenders. The waiver period has been extended from Sept. 19 to Oct. 24.

Payment Names Get a 2.3% Boost

The Pay and be Paid sector advanced by 2.3%.

Mastercard and payment gateway provider HyperPay have partnered to issue commercial cards in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The commercial cards will be launched in Saudi Arabia and later expanded to the UAE and Qatar, the firms said. The joint efforts target small to mid-sized businesses, aiming to help them improve expense management. Shares of Mastercard were up 0.6%.

Visa shares also gained 0.6%. Visa has introduced Visa Private, an offering designed for wealthier cardholders. Rolling out in the UAE before a wider launch in the Gulf region, the new offering is aimed at cardholders who want “a level of service and benefits that go beyond conventional card experiences,” Visa said. The company’s announcement said that the UAE is forecast to see a net inflow of about 9,800 millionaires in 2025.

Affirm has announced partnerships in which it will power pay-over-time options for two software platforms for service providers: ServiceTitan, which serves commercial and residential trades, and Vagaro, which serves beauty, wellness and fitness businesses. The integration of Affirm with ServiceTitan’s digital payments solution will enable contractors to offer their clients a way to split home repair bills into biweekly or monthly payments. The stock soared 10.5%.

Shares of LiveNation slipped in the wake of an FTC’s suit in California against the company over ticket resales. The complaint about Ticketmaster’s control of roughly 80% of the ticketing market in the United States, alleges the firm has “turned a blind eye as a matter of policy” when it comes to brokers who snap up tickets in bulk. Consumers often end up paying far more than face value, the suit alleged. Shares of the company lost 5.7%.

Amazon expanded its third-party logistics product to support merchants on rival Walmart. PYMNTS reported that the expansion also covers merchants selling on Shopify and Shein, and follows Amazon’s offering of fulfillment services for merchants on sales channels that include eBay, Etsy, Temu and TikTok Shop. Amazon shares gained 1.5% as the Enablers segment rose by 3%.