CE 100 Index Jumps 5% as Shopify Gets a Post-Earnings Bump; Payment Brands Rally

A rally across all market indices, as China-focused tariffs were reduced, helped lift the CE 100 Index 5% higher in a week that saw almost all pillars advance, with the exception of the “Be Well” segment.

In the Shop vertical, up 7%, Shopify surged 20.3% to take the lead among gainers for the week.

Shopify’s first-quarter earnings results showed double-digit growth in gross merchandise volumes (GMV) and a continued movement toward streamlined checkout online and further inroads made in offline commerce.

“It’s still early to assess the full impact of the current trade environment,” Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said on the conference call with analysts. He added that “We’re, of course, monitoring for potential slowdowns, but our data through April shows little evidence of that.”

The company’s earnings results noted that revenues were up 27% to $2.4 billion; GMV surged 22% to $74.8 billion. Offline GMV increased 23% and B2B GMV delivered triple-digit growth, up 109% from the year-ago first quarter, Finkelstein said.

AI Helps Boost Tencent

Tencent took the Pay and Be Paid segment up 6.9%.

In its own quarterly report, Tencent’s CEO noted that its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities had “contributed tangibly” to its gaming and advertising businesses. Revenue was up 13% year over year to 180 billion yuan ($25 billion).

“We also stepped up our spending on new AI opportunities, such as the Yuanbao application and AI in Weixin,” CEO Ma Huateng said, referring to the company’s super app. Domestic Games revenues were 42.9 billion yuan, representing a 24% year-over-year increase from last year. Tencent shares were 18% higher.

Also within the payments sphere, Affirm’s stock gained 13.2%. Affirm is partnering with Costco to offer online shoppers the option to pay over time for transactions.  Customers, if approved, will be able to select monthly Affirm payment plans when shopping on Costco’s website.

Also within the payments pantheon, PayPal’s stock was up 2.7%. The company’s shares rose in the wake of news that AI search company Perplexity has launched a partnership with PayPal. The collaboration will see Perplexity use PayPal to power agentic commerce on its Perplexity Pro platform. Beginning this summer, U.S. consumers can check out instantly using PayPal or Venmo when they ask Perplexity to look for products, book travel or purchase tickets, per the announcement.

As for the payment networks themselves, Visa and Mastercard gained a respective 3.6% and 2.6%. As detailed by PYMNTS, a group of trade associations representing European retailers reportedly asked the European Commission to take action against Mastercard and Visa under European Union antitrust rules, alleging that the companies charge high fees and don’t provide transparency on those fees. In a letter, the associations also called for price controls on interchange fees, transparency and nondiscriminatory obligations for International Card Schemes, and a tool for regulators to scrutinize ICSs’ actions.

A Visa spokesperson told PYMNTS the firm’s fees reflect the value of its services, adding: “This includes extremely high levels of security and fraud prevention, near-perfect operational resilience and reliability, and a wide range of consumer protections and high-quality, innovative products and services that serve consumer and merchant needs.”

The Be Well segment was the only decliner, slipping 1.1% as United Healthcare plunged 23%.  As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department is investigating UnitedHealth Group for possible criminal Medicare fraud related to its Medicare Advantage business.