FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with the PayPal logo is placed on a laptop in this illustration taken on July 14, 2021.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
PayPal, Block and Affirm are all closely tied to the health of the consumer, which has investors on edge headed into their earnings reports.
Markets broadly have been jittery to start the year due largely to concerns about President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and the prospect of higher import costs leading to rising unemployment and reduced consumer spending.
Specific to e-commerce, there’s the end of de minimis trade exemptions for Chinese imports, effective May 2. That change, aimed at discount shopping apps like Temu and Shein, threatens tens of billions of dollars in low-cost cross-border e-commerce volume.
“Tariff implications and macro have added another wrinkle to ’25,” Wells Fargo analysts wrote in a note on April 16. The bank said PayPal is particularly exposed to tariff-related volatility and macro uncertainty, given that 90% of its revenue comes from consumer-driven transactions.
PayPal is the first in the group to report earnings on Tuesday. Block, the parent of Square, follows on Thursday. Affirm is scheduled to report results next Thursday. Their stock prices have been hit harder this year than the broader market. PayPal is down 23%, Block has fallen 32% and Affirm has dropped 19%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 10%.
The stocks rebounded last week as Wall Street showed some level of optimism that the Trump administration will make progress on trade agreements and that tariffs won’t be as extreme as earlier proposals suggested.
Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro
Trump signed an executive order in early April imposing tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories. After markets immediately plunged, the president soon announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs, though levies on imports from China remain, and are as high as 145%. The universal tariff rate on goods imported into the U.S. from most countries is 10%.
The fintech reports land during earnings season for megcap tech, with Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple all announcing results this week. Tesla and Alphabet both reported last week and talked about the potential impact of policy changes on their earnings calls.
On Alphabet’s earnings call on Thursday, Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said the end of the de minimis trade loophole will “cause a slight headwind to our ads business in 2025,” primarily from retailers in the Asia-Pacific region.
While Google is “not immune to the macro environment,” Schindler said, it has “a lot of experience managing through uncertain times.”
E-commerce challenges
With mixed messages coming from the administration, companies are reckoning with uncertainty and have little ability to provide accurate forecasts for the current quarter and remainder of the year. The volatility reached such heights in early April that Klarna, which competes with Affirm in the buy now, pay later market, and ticket marketplace StubHub delayed their long-awaited initial public offerings shortly after filing their prospectuses with the SEC.
Barclays analysts noted in a report on April 17, that significantly higher tariffs will weigh heavily on e-commerce sales, particularly for goods previously entering the U.S. duty-free. The firm estimates that Temu and Shein represent more than 30% of affected flows, much of it tied to digital wallets, buy now, pay later providers, and card processing infrastructure.
PayPal derives the vast majority of sales from consumer transactions and 40% of revenue and gross payment volume comes from international markets, according to Wells Fargo analysts. The bank trimmed its price target on April 16,to $74 from $80, citing margin pressure as e-commerce trends soften and competition rises.
PayPal has been getting a boost from Venmo, but that segment is also threatened if consumer spending declines. Growth expectations for the quarter — specifically a 5.5% increase in branded checkout volume — may be too high, Wells Fargo said, based on available nonstore retail sales data.
Analysts surveyed by LSEG estimate that PayPal will post revenue growth of just under 2% from a year earlier to $7.85 billion, and earnings of $1.16 per share.
Jack Dorsey’s Block faces pressure in multiple areas. Cash App user growth was sluggish in March, up just 1.3% from the same time last year, and Afterpay — the company’s buy now, pay later offering — is tightening its underwriting to limit credit losses. Barclays flagged Block as one of the more exposed names to small business churn and low-income volatility, noting that Afterpay volumes remain tied to highly discretionary consumer spend.
Block is expected to report revenue growth of about 4% to $6.2 billion, and earnings of 87 cents per share, according to LSEG,
Affirm reported a 30% increase in monthly active users in March, but tighter credit conditions and a broader economic cooldown may crimp near-term loan volume growth. Its business counts on purchases of electronics, apparel, furniture and other consumer goods.
Affirm is projected to report revenue growth of 36% to $783 million, and a loss of 3 cents per share, according to consensus estimates from LSEG.
Barclays analysts wrote in a note on April 15, thatin March and the early part of April, much of the retail market may have experienced a “pull forward” of discretionary spending as consumers rushed to make purchases ahead of the May tariff implementation, a dynamic that could distort some backward-looking results.
“This scenario would essentially kick the sentiment can down the road,” the Barclays analysts wrote.
Representatives from PayPal, Block and Affirm declined to comment.
A fully electric Isuzu pickup truck? That’s right. The D-MAX EV is Isuzu’s first electric pickup, and it will be rolling in the next few months. After kicking off mass production, Isuzu said the new EV pickup will “match the performance of existing diesel models,” boasting high towing capacity and payload.
Isuzu’s first electric pickup is launching in 2025
Isuzu announced on Tuesday that the D-MAX EV has officially entered mass production. The company has started building left-hand drive models, which will be shipped to Europe in the third quarter of 2025.
By the end of the year, production of right-hand drive models will begin for the UK, with sales expected to start in 2026.
The electric pickup is nearly identical to Isuzu’s popular gas-powered D-MAX, but swaps the diesel powertrain for a pair of electric motors. The D-MAX EV features new e-Axles, one on the front and the other at the rear, for a full-time 4WD system.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
The dual-motor powertrain enables it to match the performance of existing diesel models, with a combined 188 hp (140 kW) and a maximum torque of 240 lb-ft (325 Nm).
It can also tow over 7,700 lbs (3,500 kg) with a maximum payload of over 2,200 lbs (1,010 kg). That’s about the same as the D-MAX diesel, which has a 3,500 kg towing capacity and a payload capacity of up to 1,200 kg.
Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s first electric pickup boasts a driving range of up to 263 km (162 miles) on the WLTP. In the city, it can have a driving range of up to 224 miles (361 km).
Isuzu D-Max EV specs
Drive System
Full-time 4×4
Battery Type
Lithium-ion
Battery Capacity
66.9 kWh
Max Output
130 kW (174 hp)
Max Torque
325 Nm
Max Speed
Over 130 km/h (+80 mph)
Max Payload
1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs)
Max Towing Capacity
3.5t (+7,700 lbs)
Isuzu D-Max EV electric pickup specs
Built for on and off-road performance, the rugged electric pickup features over 8″ (210 mm) of ground clearance with a wading depth of nearly 24″ (600 mm).
Although prices have not been announced, the D-MAX EV is expected to start slightly higher than the diesel model, which has a base price of around € 36,500 ($41,600).
Isuzu’s popular D-MAX is sold in over 100 countries, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. The electric version will arrive in Europe in the next few months, followed by the UK and other regions in 2026.
The electric D-MAX will compete with the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, and other electric pickups, such as Geely’s Radar R6, BYD’s Shark, and Ford’s F-150 Lightning.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
For the first time in five years, a Tesla insider required to report Tesla stock transactions bought stocks rather than selling them.
But the transaction is so small that it makes the whole situation hilarious.
Insiders in public companies are top executives and board members who are required to report to the SEC any transaction related to the company’s stock.
For Tesla, it has become a running joke that insiders only sell, never buy the stock.
Advertisement – scroll for more content
This has been true without exception for years.
We don’t know as much about executives as Tesla has a very short top executive bench who are required to file transactions. However, when it comes to its board members, they have been selling at an impressive rate.
However, we now have confirmation that a Tesla board member is buying, rather than selling.
Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder who joined Tesla’s board in 2022, confirmed that he bought 4,000 shares in Tesla last week worth about $1 million:
Electrek’s Take
Gebbia is estimated to be worth over $7 billion. Therefore, his purchase of $1 million worth of Tesla stock would be equivalent to my buying a fractional share in Tesla.
Furthermore, the disclosure confirmed that despite being on the board for the last 3 years, Gebbia owned only 111 shares in Tesla before the transaction.
That’s quite the show of confidence in Tesla.
Thie whole situation with the board is disappointing. Tesla’s core business is melting. The company reported its worst quarter in years last week, and the stock surged 20%.
None of it makes any sense.
The board is sitting on its hands while the most powerful force accelerating the advent of electric transport is being destroyed in favor of nonsensical predictions about the potential of solving self-driving and humanoid robots.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More.
Venmo, long a centerpiece of PayPal‘s growth story but often criticized for its lack of monetization, is becoming a bigger contributor to the business.
PayPal said Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings release that revenue at Venmo increased 20% year-over-year in the first quarter, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013 through the acquisition of parent company Braintree.
While it’s long been a popular consumer service for sending money to friends, Venmo’s ability to drive meaningful revenue has been a major question mark for investors, especially as competition from rivals like Zelle and Square Cash has intensified.
Venmo’s total payment volume rose 10% from a year earlier, but revenue grew twice as fast, reflecting the business opportunity. Venmo only gets revenue from specific products like Pay with Venmo at online checkout, Venmo debit cards, and instant transfers, but not from peer-to-peer payments.
Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro
Ahead of the earnings report, Jefferies analysts noted that Venmo revenue growth appeared to be “accelerating sharply” and flagged its rising contribution to branded checkout as a key area to watch. Compass Point analysts similarly said that while competition from Zelle and Square Cash remains fierce, Venmo’s traction with debit cards and online checkout could “open up new monetization avenues” if adoption trends continue.
The company added nearly 2 million first-time PayPal and Venmo debit card users during the quarter, and total debit card payment volume across PayPal and Venmo climbed more than 60%. Meanwhile, Pay with Venmo transaction volume surged 50% year over year, and Venmo debit card monthly active users grew about 40%.
PayPal reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter but missed on revenue. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance, citing macroeconomic uncertainty.