Shopify Inc

Consumer artificial intelligence agents could reshape online shopping, payments and financial services, but their success will depend on how established companies respond, according to Bernstein. The rapid growth of Muse, which can compare products and quotes, call businesses, send emails, fill forms, manage inboxes, cancel subscriptions and negotiate for users, has fuelled speculation about an "iPhone moment" for consumer AI, with OpenAI launching Dots and Google expected to improve Spark. Amazon blocked Muse within two weeks of launch, citing lack of prior notification, failure to identify itself, apparent collection of customer credentials and access to account pages and order histories, while others including Shopify, Walmart, Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Wayfair, Dick's Sporting Goods, Ulta Beauty, Fanatics, Expedia and Instacart have partnered with Muse for shopping and checkout. Bernstein expects selective access rather than blanket blocking, and Muse is developing API connectors with retailers, although it currently mainly browses websites, fills forms and prepares orders for user confirmation. Cloudflare says AI-agent requests on its network rose over 1,700% in a year, while human traffic in heavily crawled retail and financial-services categories fell as much as 40%, and Bernstein sees payments as a potential winner, with more online transactions potentially benefiting Visa, Mastercard and processors Stripe, Adyen and Checkout.

Shopify heads into its next earnings report on November 3, 2026 with a positive Earnings ESP of +10.11% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), a combination that has historically preceded an earnings beat. The cloud-based commerce company has topped estimates in each of its last two reports, posting earnings of $0.42 per share against a Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.39 for a surprise of 7.69%, after delivering $0.36 per share versus an expected $0.32 for a surprise of 12.50%. That gives Shopify an average surprise of 10.10% over the past two quarters. Estimates have been trending higher, and Zacks research shows stocks combining a positive Earnings ESP with a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. Shopify belongs to the Zacks Internet - Services industry.

Shopify introduced a new policy blocking autonomous AI agents from completing checkout flows across its merchant network, framing the restriction as a way to reduce payment risk and system strain as agent-based ecommerce activity increases. Separately, Shopify merchants gained expanded access to Ecom NOW same-day delivery through a new integration focused on Canadian order fulfillment. The company runs a global commerce platform helping merchants of all sizes set up online stores, take payments, and manage logistics across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The AI checkout curb reinforces Shopify's focus on transaction security and payments reliability, core to Shopify Payments and Shop Pay, while the expanded same-day delivery supports larger brands seeking Amazon-like service levels while owning their storefronts.

Asia Plus Securities, or ASPS, recommends a Selective Investment strategy, highlighting DRs linked to global technology stocks such as the Optical, CPU & AI Server, Semi Equipment, Cloud and Power groups, alongside Thai stocks that benefit from the weakening baht and the high season. Analysts note that the direction of US Federal Reserve policy continues to pressure the baht. If the terminal interest rate sits at 4.5%, the baht will fluctuate weaker in a range of 35-37 baht per US dollar, or depreciate 4-10%, which is positive for the hospital group that treats foreign patients, such as BH, BDMS, BCH and PR9, as well as the tourism group like AOT, THAI and CENTEL, and the export group like TU, ITC and CPF. For the five standout stocks and interesting DRs, they include SHOP06, whose third-quarter earnings trend remains strong on the back of bringing AI to boost trading volume on its platform; MRVL06, which gets a boost from its Investor Day, where new technology is expected to be unveiled; ITC, which benefits from the weak baht and is awaiting progress on closing its merger deal in the fourth quarter of 2026; TRUE, whose third-quarter 2026 profit is expected to expand prominently, with an interim dividend of 0.15 baht anticipated; and BH, whose revenue and patient numbers from the Middle East are recovering strongly, while the stock still has high upside. On fund flows, although foreign investors still hold Thai stocks including NVDRs amounting to 36.5% of market value, cumulative net buying since the start of the year has fallen from a peak of 75 billion baht to just 18 billion baht, after more than 50 billion baht in net selling over the past two months. However, in the latest trading session, foreign investors began switching to net buying through the NVDR channel to the tune of 2.66 billion baht, reflecting selective accumulation of individual stocks expected to post fourth-quarter 2026 earnings growth to capture the high season.

Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black estimates Meta's Muse AI agent could generate up to 8% of the company's revenue by 2030, roughly $36 billion in sales, with a lower-end forecast of $2.4 billion. Muse has already been downloaded more than 5.1 million times, according to Sensor Tower, and Meta has signed commerce deals with Shopify and PayPal. Meta also debuted the Muse Charm in late September, a standalone pocket device built exclusively for voice interaction with the Muse agent, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg showcased a shift toward "personal superintelligence" with the Meta VR Glasses, a 100-gram spatial computing device priced at $1,299 with 5K micro-OLED displays, tethered puck processing, and native eye and hand tracking. On the smart eyewear front, Meta launched the third-generation Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 glasses starting at $249, alongside camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses for open-ear listening and AI voice interaction. Meta's stock is up 25% inside of a month.

US e-commerce growth has run at about 10% year-on-year through the first three quarters of 2026, beating Bernstein's 8% forecast made at the start of the year, the broker said. Bernstein estimates third-quarter growth at about 8.4%, with second and third quarter growth combined at about 10.4% after adjusting for the timing of Prime Day, while first-quarter growth was 9.7%. The broker pointed to better digital advertising, resilient consumer spending and less aggressive competition from online retailers such as Temu and Shein, and sees the advertising improvement as a potentially lasting tailwind. The top 14 US e-commerce platforms accounted for about 82% of gross merchandise value in the second quarter, up roughly 3 percentage points from a year earlier, with Shopify's share rising to 14.2% from 13.2%, Walmart's to 8.7% from 7.8% and Amazon's to 42.9% from 42.3%. Bernstein estimates second-quarter growth of 52% for Carvana, 25% for Walmart, 24% for eBay and 21% for Shopify, against 14% for Amazon and 12% for the overall market, and rates Amazon, Shopify and Wayfair outperform while eBay and Etsy are rated market perform.

The OUSD stablecoin has officially gone live with Visa, Mastercard and Stripe behind it, according to Scott Melker on "The Daily Wolf with Scott Melker." OUSD, or Open USD, is a consortium of fintechs and payment companies launching their own stablecoin to compete in a massive market where high interest rates generate essentially free money, and it is being run by Stripe, which acquired Bridge in a unicorn deal and whose Bridge CEO is also running the blockchain. The stablecoin is launching on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, with the bulk of liquidity expected on Stripe's own Tempo blockchain, while reserves will be held at BlackRock, BNY and Lead Bank. Five founding members — Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa — will split the equity and have invested a billion dollars for initial liquidity, and depending on usage they will accrue more or less equity or earnings from the stablecoin, meaning earnings accrue to the companies promoting and using it rather than to a private company behind it. The launch follows a huge debate when it was announced, as 140 logos appeared including BlackRock and others, and some companies said they had never heard of it and had not gotten the memo.

Meta Platforms is expanding its Muse AI product into a small-business offering and weighing new fees and subscriptions, President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick told CNBC on Wednesday. McCormick said Muse has become the No. 1 downloaded app on the App Store, with millions of downloads since launch, and that unlike traditional AI tools it can act on users' behalf by planning travel, handling tasks and completing transactions. The new Muse for Small Business can start customer conversations, manage cash flow and inventory, build websites and communicate directly with customers, giving Meta access to roughly 200 million small-business owners already using its platforms. McCormick cited Meta's 3.6 billion daily users and said the company is considering charging a fee when Muse helps users save money, and could pursue subscriptions as engagement increases. Meta is integrating partners including Shopify, Slack and Walmart into Muse, and McCormick said small businesses using it report reclaiming one to three hours each day.

Shopify's Merchant Solutions revenues jumped 37% year over year to $2.78 billion in the second quarter of 2026, representing 78% of total revenues, as overall Gross Merchandise Value climbed 32% to $115.6 billion. Shopify Payments remained the biggest driver, with payments penetration reaching 68% of GMV, up from 64% a year earlier, while GMV processed through Shopify Payments rose 38% to $78.1 billion from $56.6 billion, generating an additional $624 million in Shopify Payments revenues. Shopify Payments is now available in 40 countries following its launch in the UAE, European penetration increased more than 350 basis points year over year, and Shop Pay GMV rose 53% year over year, while international GMV increased 37%, offline GMV rose 32% and B2B GMV surged 76%. The company faces tough competition from Block and PayPal, whose Braintree platform and Square ecosystem are pushing into larger sellers and the mid-market. Shopify shares have lost 7.9% year to date, underperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector's return of 21.3%, and the stock carries a forward 12-month price/sales of 10.65X versus the sector's 6.14X. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings stands at $1.89 per share, unchanged over the past 30 days and implying 61.54% year-over-year growth, with Shopify carrying a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

MoEngage announced MoEngage for Shopify, a native integration that unifies a merchant's Shopify data across 16+ channels including email, SMS, app and web push, WhatsApp, and on-site personalization in real time. The agentic engagement platform is trusted by more than 1,350 brands including Loblaws, Poshmark, Nestlé, and Farfetch. MoEngage said it is the only agentic customer engagement platform built for Shopify that addresses the challenge of disconnected tools, synchronizing native Shopify events, profile attributes, subscription statuses, and product catalog updates from a single unified source of truth. Early adopter Stadium Goods, a sneaker and streetwear resale marketplace, moved its back-in-stock alerts from a static, API-updated field to real-time event triggers after connecting with MoEngage, and has since used synced purchase and catalog data to build sharper Google and Meta lookalike audiences, seeing the strongest lift on international campaigns. The solution unlocks native agentic AI functionality immediately upon setup, and is composable by design, letting merchants start with individual channels without migrating their entire stack and consolidate later.

Apple shares fell 1.6% today after Bank of America warned that third-party AI agents threaten to rewrite the economics of mobile commerce, striking at the core of Apple's ecosystem. The immediate catalyst is Meta's agentic AI Muse, launched on September 8, 2026, which cleared 2.5 million downloads in its first two weeks and surged to the top of the US iOS free-app chart, with OpenAI widely expected to announce its own consumer agent later today. In a new research note, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote that Apple can keep every handset sale and still lose discovery, referral, and transaction initiation, with routing economics shifting from the operating system to whoever owns the agent. Muse's early commerce integrations include Shopify's full catalogue and Shop Pay infrastructure, plus Expedia and PayPal, while Amazon notably blocked the agent outright. Apple's rebuilt Siri shipped with iOS 27 on September 14, 2026, using custom Google Gemini models for Apple Foundation Models, but Mohan said Siri AI still lacks persistent background tasks, broad third-party action coverage, and a dedicated agent payment rail, and that the bottleneck is not hardware since a modern iPhone comfortably exceeds Muse's benchmark requirements of 2 vCPUs, 8GB of RAM, and 100GB of storage. Bank of America maintained its Buy rating on Apple, citing its loyal installed base and user trust, but Mohan warned that Apple ships major software releases annually while agents improve daily.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood agreed with analyst Nick Grous that Amazon.com's holdout from Meta Platforms' Muse sets up "a great test" of customer loyalty and the promise of agentic commerce. On ARK's podcast released Saturday, Grous said Amazon is blocking Muse to protect its advertising business, which is "extremely profitable" at $70 billion and generated $19.8 billion in revenue in Q2 of 2026, up 26% year over year. He contrasted Amazon with Shopify, which opened up Shop Pay integration in Muse and let it index its shop catalog, while retailers including American Eagle, Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Gap, Fanatics, Michael Kors, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, and Wayfair have all signed up to let Muse operate on their platforms. Earlier this month, Amazon said it blocked Muse because Meta never got permission for the agent to access its site and the agent didn't identify itself while browsing, and days later Amazon opened its seller platform to Anthropic's Claude, a company in which it has invested $13 billion, with up to $20 billion more tied to milestones. ARK's fund sold 20,000 Amazon shares earlier this month, worth about $5.1 million, even as the firm separately projects Amazon Web Services could become a "trillion-dollar-per-year" business, and ARK has been rotating into Meta instead as Muse continues to reshape online shopping.

Meta Platforms is expanding the commercial capabilities of its Muse AI assistant through a strategic partnership with Shopify, announced by Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke on September 21, that brings Shop Pay agentic checkout to Muse and lets users shop from Shopify merchants and complete purchases through the AI assistant. The integration gives Muse access to Shopify's merchant ecosystem and checkout infrastructure, moving Meta closer to the transaction layer of online commerce rather than simply directing users to third-party websites, and Shopify's agentic storefronts will also make products more discoverable through AI-driven channels. The deal follows Amazon's decision to block Muse from its e-commerce platform, with Amazon saying it had not authorized Muse to access its retail platform and arguing that third-party AI agents should operate transparently and respect a service provider's decision about whether to participate. The financial terms of the partnership and Meta's potential revenue share have not been disclosed, and it remains unclear how frequently Muse users will complete purchases through the platform or whether commerce activity will translate into material revenue for Meta. Hedge fund ownership of Meta stock declined to 254 funds in the second quarter from 262 in the first quarter, with Newlands Management Operations LLC reducing its Meta position by 2% to $5.44 billion and Fisher Asset Management increasing its stake by 2% to $3.83 billion, while Meta shares held short rose to 30.99 million as of September 15 from 28.05 million as of August 14, representing about 1.22% of the company's shares.

Shopify has accelerated its push into AI-powered commerce, signing an AI sales partnership with Meta's Muse agent and completing the acquisition of Tailwind Labs, the creator of Tailwind CSS. The expanded Meta deal lets Muse complete sales using Shop Pay on Meta's platforms, tying Shopify's AI commerce story to a major consumer traffic source. Shopify also highlighted strong growth in AI-driven traffic and orders alongside profitability. The company's narrative projects $26.3 billion revenue and $3.9 billion earnings by 2029, yielding a $171.15 fair value, a 20% upside to its current price, while the lowest analyst estimate sees revenue of about US$25.0 billion and earnings near US$3.2 billion by 2029. Investors continue to weigh higher AI spending and rising competition from other AI-enabled retail platforms against the company's ambition to be the interface layer for global, high-margin, software-based commerce infrastructure.

BMO research found that 35 of the 60 companies in Canada's S&P/TSX 60, or 58%, have no board director with disclosed artificial intelligence experience, including some financial and technology companies that are among the most active adopters of the technology. The report argues boards do not need AI engineers but should have enough expertise to challenge management's assumptions, assess investments and ensure adequate controls are in place, as Canadian companies increase spending on AI across product development, customer services and workforce management. BMO analyst Doug Morrow wrote that AI-related risks extend beyond investment decisions, citing potential regulatory and legal liabilities, excessive AI-related costs, data privacy breaches, cybersecurity incidents and intellectual property risks. Board-level AI expertise is beginning to emerge among Canada's largest companies, with CIBC adding Prasanna Gopalakrishnan and Bank of Nova Scotia appointing Ralph Hamers, while BMO identified Intact Financial, Canadian National Railway and Nutrien as having among the most AI-fluent boards in the S&P/TSX 60. Shopify and OpenText had the highest proportions of directors with AI experience or knowledge, at 33% and 31% respectively, and Celestica was the only TSX-listed company in BMO's review with a dedicated AI category in its board skills matrix, with four of its nine directors reporting AI competency. Bank of Nova Scotia, CAE, CIBC and National Bank of Canada have established board-level technology committees, Kinross Gold directors participated in seven AI-focused continuing education sessions in 2025, the highest among S&P/TSX 60 companies, and BMO found board AI fluency was not closely linked to directors' age but had a stronger inverse relationship with average board tenure, which ranged from 49 at Shopify to about 71 at Bank of Montreal.

Shopify has signed a deal to make eligible Shopify stores fully shoppable through Meta's new AI agent Muse, with Shop Pay available as a checkout option. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke said the company is partnering deeply with Muse to enable agentic checkout with Shop Pay on all Shopify stores, and the news sent shares more than 5% higher on September 22. Amazon blocked Muse in the same week, arguing that third-party apps should respect a retailer's decision not to participate, and has also blocked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity's Comet. Amazon's $68.6 billion advertising business adds to the commercial stakes, though its legal position took a hit in August when a Ninth Circuit appeals court overturned its injunction against Perplexity. Amazon operates its own agentic shopping assistant, Alexa for Shopping, and said Rufus had helped deliver nearly $12 billion in incremental annualized sales in 2025.

PayPal Holdings is working with Meta Platforms to support purchases made through Muse, Meta's personal AI agent, at participating merchants worldwide. The arrangement brings PayPal into Meta's effort to turn Muse into a shopping tool that can handle transactions for users, letting customers move through parts of the buying process without completing each step themselves. The deal comes as online commerce platforms test ways to connect AI assistants with payment systems, and Shopify also said Tuesday that its merchants would be able to process purchases completed through Muse. Amazon, meanwhile, has blocked Muse from making purchases on its website as it seeks to restrict shopping activity carried out by outside automated services. Meta's push into AI-led commerce follows growing attention around Muse since its recent launch, with the assistant also rising to the top of Apple's U.S. App Store rankings earlier this month.

Meta went live with an agent-commerce layer at Meta Connect 2026, expanding its Muse ecosystem so that the Muse Spark personal AI agent can shop and check out on behalf of users. Meta confirmed that PayPal global Muse payments will let customers shop and check out using their Muse personal AI agents across PayPal merchants worldwide, while Shopify and Stripe have integrated their Shop Pay and Link wallets to enable agent-native commerce infrastructure, with Muse able to search the Shopify catalog and execute checkout directly in-app. The connectors also include Expedia and Instacart, effectively turning the Muse agent into a digital wallet. The technical leap is the Muse computer-use capability, which runs in a Muse Secure VM, an isolated Linux virtual machine in the cloud, letting the agent interact with native macOS apps like Files, Mail and Calendar and drive a full browser. Meta also unveiled the Luna camera-free smart glasses with six microphones, open-ear speakers and a dedicated AI button, though Muse-on-glasses was only teased as coming soon and was not shipped at the keynote, with 2.5M US downloads as of September 20. Amazon has blocked Muse from its platform, a revealing exclusion that suggests the future of commerce may be a battle between open agent-accessible platforms and walled gardens, and the industry is building ahead of the GENIUS Act enforcement cliff looming on January 18, 2027.

Morgan Stanley said in a note Wednesday that the rise of consumer AI agents such as Meta's Muse could benefit communications and software vendors long seen as vulnerable to automation, rather than threaten them. Analyst Elizabeth Porter argued that agents like Muse and Instinct, personal assistants that complete tasks on users' behalf, could expand the volume of interactions businesses field, cushioning contact-center vendors whose seat-based models have been under pressure from AI. She wrote that consumer agents lower the effort required to engage a business while enterprise AI lowers the cost of responding, potentially expanding communications volumes and usage-based monetization. Porter believes Twilio offers the broadest exposure, benefiting from the messages and calls an agent initiates to complete a task, such as authentication texts, reservation confirmations and follow-ups, on top of its existing usage and software-attachment model. For contact-center names such as NICE, Five9 and RingCentral, she said higher volumes could slow the risk of seat reductions while automation priced by interaction expands, and among web-presence providers she sees Wix as better placed than GoDaddy, with Shopify the most direct beneficiary in e-commerce software. Porter cautioned this is a stronger medium-term bull case rather than a near-term catalyst, and said she is wary of extrapolating upside into third-quarter results.

Shopify shares climbed about 6% Tuesday after the e-commerce company expanded its relationship with Meta to support purchases through Meta's Muse artificial intelligence assistant. The arrangement will allow Muse users to buy products from merchants on Shopify's platform and complete transactions using Shop Pay, the company's checkout service, enabling AI-powered shopping without requiring customers to leave the assistant's interface. Meta introduced Muse earlier this month as an AI agent designed to perform tasks on behalf of users, including product discovery and online purchases, adding Shopify to a growing list of companies exploring how AI assistants may handle commerce activities for consumers. The development comes as Amazon has taken a different approach, restricting Muse from making purchases on its retail marketplace earlier this week and saying outside applications conducting transactions for customers should follow a retailer's decision on participation. Amazon has also limited access for other AI shopping tools, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Alphabet's Gemini and Perplexity's Comet, as competition around AI-driven commerce continues to evolve.

Meta's Muse app reached 2.5 million cumulative downloads by September 21, split between 1.5 million on iOS and 1.1 million on Android, after securing 730,000 downloads in its first five days and overtaking ChatGPT as the number one free iOS app in the United States on September 18. ChatGPT recorded 3.1 million downloads in the same 13-day window, while Claude reached 400,000 and Grok 200,000, according to Sensor Tower data. Meta stock surged approximately 11.4% on September 21 to $741.25, its best single-day gain in over a year, helping drive the Nasdaq to a record close of 27,122.09, and Wells Fargo subsequently raised its price target for Meta to $796. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told CNBC's Squawk on the Street that most agentic use cases have not really been for normal people, and that Muse and other agents are starting to offer more potential for broad-based adoption, while noting users care about security more than privacy. The ecosystem remains split: Amazon has blocked Muse from shopping features, citing privacy and security concerns, while Shopify has partnered with the platform to enable agentic commerce, as announced by CEO Tobias Lutke. Meta has structured Muse with a free tier, a $20 per month Muse Power subscription, and a $100 per month tier, with models priced at $1.25 to $4.25 per million tokens and a contributor tier at $0.10 to $0.20.

Meta Platforms is facing a privacy investigation in France into its AI-powered smart glasses following recent complaints about data collection. French regulators are examining whether the AI glasses comply with EU data protection rules for audio and visual recording in public spaces. Separately, Meta has partnered with Shopify to integrate its Muse AI tools into agentic payments, aiming to streamline embedded checkout flows for merchants. The French inquiry and the Shopify Muse payments tie-up are two developments investors are weighing, with the regulatory scrutiny highlighting privacy and youth-harm risk in product design while the commerce link advances Meta's push to diversify revenue beyond advertising.

FedEx Corp. launched its Global Trade Navigator suite earlier this week, introducing new digital tools including Trade Planner, upgraded Ship Manager capabilities, Shopify duty and tax integration, and Global Trade APIs to simplify international shipping and customs compliance for businesses of all sizes. By moving trade intelligence to the planning stage and integrating it directly into merchant workflows, FedEx aims to cut international shipping complexity, reduce customs-related disruptions, and make cross-border e-commerce more manageable for smaller shippers. The rollout aligns with FedEx's investment narrative centered on cost efficiency and technology, though it does not materially change the near-term catalyst around DRIVE and Network 2.0 execution, nor does it remove key risks from softer B2B volumes and restructuring around the Freight separation. FedEx's narrative projects $97.6 billion revenue and $5.5 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 1.0% yearly revenue growth and about a $1.1 billion earnings increase from $4.4 billion today, while some of the most optimistic analysts already expected FedEx to reach about US$109.5 billion in revenue and roughly US$7.0 billion in earnings by 2029.

StoneX reiterated its Buy rating on Shopify Inc. as the stock rose 3.45% intraday, pointing to comments from chief operating officer Jess Hertz made on September 1. Hertz said agent-referred traffic using Shopify Catalog data converts at twice the rate of traffic built on scraped data, and that 75% of AI-attributed orders in the prior quarter came from categories outside Shopify's 100 largest. StoneX reads the structured catalog data as both improving conversion and spreading demand, though Hertz noted agentic gross merchandise volume remains small and nearly 90% of quarterly revenue comes from merchants more than a year old. Shopify headcount has been flat for more than eight quarters while revenue grew 34%, on $13.27 billion of trailing twelve-month revenue and a gross margin near 48%. StoneX said the data supports Shopify's attempt to become the commerce and merchant-of-record layer sitting beneath multiple AI interfaces.

Shopify's business-to-business gross merchandise volume surged 76% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, far outpacing the company's overall GMV growth of 32%. The company extended its native B2B capabilities beyond Shopify Plus for the first time, allowing more merchants to manage wholesale and direct-to-consumer operations through the same admin. Management highlighted cross-selling success, with merchants like Arhaus expanding from online to point-of-sale, B2B, and payments. Large retailers, the fastest-growing segment, are also adopting Shopify's unified system. While sustaining 76% growth may become harder as the base grows, the expansion of B2B tools and increasing adoption support continued momentum. Total GMV reached $116 billion in Q2, with B2B becoming an increasingly important contributor. Shopify faces competition from eBay and Etsy, which reported strong results, but Shopify's stock has underperformed the sector year to date, and its valuation remains high at a forward price-to-sales of 11.18X.

Affirm Holdings is expanding its buy now, pay later reach by launching Shop Pay Installments in Australia through its partnership with Shopify, and has promoted Michael Linford to President. The Australian rollout broadens access to installment options for Shopify merchants and shoppers in a competitive market. Linford's new role adds senior leadership responsibilities alongside his existing duties, concentrating oversight of global markets, risk, finance, and legal. This combination of international product expansion and an adjusted executive structure signals a fresh phase of growth planning for Affirm, with investors watching international gross merchandise volume and credit outcomes as Australia ramps up.

Shopify reported quarterly revenue growth of 33.7% year on year, beating analyst expectations on revenue, billings, and gross merchandise volume, while highlighting a net cash position of US$4.77 billion. The company also deepened its tie-up with Affirm, launching Shop Pay Installments in Australia, which underscores how its AI tools and financial services are becoming more embedded in merchant checkout and financing options globally. The stronger-than-expected results and expanded partnership may influence Shopify's investment narrative around AI-powered commerce, though competitive pressure and regulatory scrutiny on data use remain key risks. The company's premium valuation could compress if growth slows, but the Affirm partnership could support higher payment penetration and stickiness. Shopify's narrative projects $25.8 billion revenue and $3.9 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 24.7% yearly revenue growth and about a $2.0 billion earnings increase from $1.9 billion today, yielding a fair value of $160.59, a 4% upside to its current price.

Affirm's stock is gaining after the company topped fiscal fourth quarter earnings expectations, with COO Michael Linford, who was named the company's next president, saying the business is "firing on all cylinders." The company posted its 11th consecutive quarter of over 30% GNV growth, with revenue less transaction costs growing 39% year over year and exceeding its percentage of GNV target. Linford highlighted strong unit economics and operating leverage, with GAAP operating income up over 6 percentage points and adjusted margins above 30%. He expressed optimism about the consumer, citing stable credit trends and employment, and noted the company's expansion with Shopify in Australia and the UK, while acknowledging that international markets will take time to become meaningful. Regarding the abandoned $50 billion PayPal acquisition by Advent and Stripe, Linford declined to comment, saying Affirm is focused on its own opportunities.

Affirm Holdings reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations on revenue and transaction volume, sending its stock up roughly 7% on Friday. Revenue rose 33% to $1.17 billion in the three months ended June 30, beating the $1.11 billion analyst estimate, while gross merchandise volume climbed 36% to $14.1 billion, exceeding the $13.39 billion forecast. Adjusted operating income reached $353 million, a 30% margin, and GAAP operating income was $147 million, a 12.6% margin. For the full fiscal year, GMV hit $50.2 billion and revenue $4.26 billion. Active consumers grew 21% to 27.8 million, and the Affirm Card drew 5.2 million active consumers, up 125%. The 30-day delinquency rate improved to 2.5%. The company also announced a partnership with Shopify to bring Shop Pay Installments to Australia. For fiscal Q1 2027, Affirm expects revenue of $1.19 billion to $1.22 billion and GMV of $13.7 billion to $14.0 billion, and for the full year, GMV above $64 billion with an adjusted operating margin above 30.5%. CEO Max Levchin noted that rising gas prices are pushing more consumers toward Affirm's service, and President Michael Linford highlighted eleven straight quarters of GMV growth above 30%.

Alibaba shares fell about 4.5% in premarket trading after adjusted earnings missed expectations despite stronger-than-expected revenue and accelerating cloud growth. Revenue rose 9% to RMB268.95B, while non-GAAP net income fell 38% to RMB20.72B, below the RMB25.58B consensus. Walmart traded 7.26% lower as U.S. comparable sales rose 2.6%, missing the 3.7% consensus estimate, while adjusted operating income increased 8.1%. Moderna shares were on watch after surging 176.97% Wednesday to $174.38, the largest one-day gain by any S&P 500 stock this century, following positive late-stage results for its personalized mRNA cancer vaccine developed with Merck. Shopify was on watch after Rosenblatt initiated coverage with a Buy rating, with analyst Scott Devitt calling Shopify a dominant e-commerce software provider and viewing it as an AI winner.

Shopify delivered a blowout quarter with revenue up 34% and operating income jumping 68%, sending its stock up more than 20% in early trading, while Uber shares fell about 5% despite record free cash flow. Uber's gross bookings rose 24% year over year to $58 billion, and trailing twelve-month free cash flow surpassed $10 billion for the first time, but Wall Street reacted negatively to a revenue miss and underwhelming guidance. Disney also reported results, with revenue up 7% to $25.25 billion and segment operating income up 21%, driven by a 20% increase in experiences operating income; streaming operating income more than doubled from a year ago to $712 million. Disney announced it will sell its 50% stake in A&E Global Media to Hearst Corporation for $1.2 billion in cash and raised its share repurchase target for the year to about $9 billion. Shopify's gross merchandise volume jumped 32% in the quarter, and management expects over 30% revenue growth next quarter.