Europe’s COVID Spike Leads to Slump in Payments Stocks

Visa, Mastercard and other payments stocks were on the decline on Tuesday (Nov. 23) amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in Europe.

As MarketWatch reported, this resurgence has led to fears of new lockdowns, which could in turn result in plummeting consumer spending.

Visa fell 2.6% on Monday (Nov. 22) and was down 0.6% on Tuesday in U.S. premarket trading, while Mastercard fell 5.4% Monday and 0.4% on Tuesday premarket. American Express, meanwhile, dropped 1.5% on Monday and was down 0.4% early Tuesday.

Taken together, the three stocks are down between 6.8% and 11.9% over the last five days, MarketWatch reported.

Meanwhile, PayPal’s price fell 2.1% on Monday and 0.8% in the Tuesday premarket, while its rival Square dropped 6.1% on Monday and fell 1.6% in the Tuesday premarket.

The pressure on these companies comes against the backdrop of a dramatic rise in COVID cases in Europe, with countries like Germany, Australia and the Netherlands seeing the highest levels of weekly infections of any point in the pandemic.

Read more: Protests Heat up Across Europe Over Renewed COVID Restrictions

Austria began a lockdown on Monday that could last nearly three weeks, a move that set off protests in Vienna. “It hurts that such measures still have to be taken,” Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said at a news conference last week.

As PYMNTS reported earlier this week, two-thirds of that country is fully vaccinated, but the government wants to have 100% of the population get their COVID shots by the end of February. Compulsory vaccinations are set to go into effect on Feb. 1, 2022.

If more European countries impose new restrictions or go back into lockdown, MarketWatch notes that it could harm consumer activity in terms of travel and spending, both of which are key to payments companies. Mastercard and Visa both get more than 40% of their revenue from non-U.S. consumers.

Read more: Visa/Amazon Interchange Dispute Shows Balance of Power Shifting to Platforms

The two credit card companies were already under pressure this week, with Amazon beginning a crackdown on card fees.