KPLT - Why Shares of Upstart Katapult and LendingClub Rose Today
The past month or so has been terrible for fintech company stocks, but on Tuesday, they shifted gears as investors began to shake off their fears about the potential risks carried by the omicron COVID-19 variant. On a day when the Nasdaq Composite climbed by 3%, Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) rose roughly 10%, LendingClub (NYSE: LC) gained about 8%, and Katapult (NASDAQ: KPLT) rose by 14.3%. Still, over the past month, Upstart is down by about 42%, LendingClub is down nearly 31%, and Katapult is down more than 21%.
This autumn, worries intensified that inflation would be stronger and last longer than experts previously expected. In October, the Consumer Price Index, which tracks prices across a basket of common goods, was up by 6.2% year over year. It was the largest such CPI increase in more than 30 years.
The direction things were going was further clarified when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress that he would no longer use the word "transitory" when discussing the recent price inflation. The Fed also indicated it would taper its bond-buying program more rapidly than it had previously planned, a signal that hikes could indeed be coming in benchmark interest rates next year. Just months ago, many believed the Fed would not raise the fed funds rate until late 2023 or 2024. Now, Bank of America research analysts are modeling for three rate hikes in 2022.
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Why Shares of Upstart, Katapult, and LendingClub Rose Today