CE 100 Index Drops 4.3% as All Pillars Slide and WeWork Faces Lawsuit

The CE 100 fell by 4.3% last week, outpacing the broader indices’ decline. The Nasdaq, by way of example, slid 3.5%.

All pillars lost ground, and most names were in the red heading into the final trading week of the third quarter — and just a few weeks before earnings season starts up again.

The Shopping pillar gave up more than 6.5%. Shopify shares gave up 14.9%, leading names lower. This week, as reported by sites including Inc42.com, the company is partnering with Cashfree Payments to enable in-store/onsite payments functionality to merchants in India. As reported, the initial functionality will be tied to debit and credit card payments, directly collecting customers’ payment information on merchants’  websites, which in turn will speed checkouts. Additional payments options will be rolled out in the future.

The Work segment slipped 5.9%. WeWork, yet again, was among the most notable contributors to the index’s overall direction (and the Work pillar’s fate this past week) this time around, lost 26.9%.

The company had announced earlier in the month that it would seek to renegotiate all of its leases. And this past week, the New York Post reported that New York landlord DivcoWest (which is based in California) has filed a $30 million lawsuit in Manhattan against WeWork. The suit centers on missed rent and a terminated WeWork lease for a midtown NYC location. DivcoWest has said WeWork owes rent for the entire duration of the original lease term, which would have ended in 2032.

In the Pay and Be Paid segment, which gave up 5.4$%, Affirm declined 17.2%.

As we reported, Affirm is in the midst of mulling subscriptions, branching out to offer a service that would be called Affirm Plus.

Details in the Code?

The potential service aims to offer upgrades for both its buy now, pay later (BNPL) plan users and savings account holders. The service was reportedly discovered within the code of Affirm’s iPhone application — where it is not visible to users —  by developer Steve Moser, who shared it with Bloomberg.

Reached for comment by PYMNTS, an Affirm spokesperson provided an emailed statement: “We’re always exploring new ways to bring value to our consumers.” Initial reports stated that the code indicates that Affirm Plus could also unlock a higher interest rate for savings accounts, with a promised annual percentage yield (APY) of 4.75% — higher than Affirm’s current rate of 4.35%.

Also within that payments pillar, Block shares gave up 15.4%. In news tied to management changes,  Square CEO of Block Alyssa Henry will depart the company at the beginning of next month.

Henry will be succeeded by Jack Dorsey, the company’s Block head and chairperson, who will also serve as the helm of Square.

The announcement comes about two weeks after Square said it would investigate and publish a full review of an outage that hit the platform for about 19 hours earlier in the month.

Not all names lost ground, even if their respective pillars did.

Among denizens of the Live pillar, which was down a relatively muted 2%, iRobot gained 6.3%.  European Union (EU) antitrust regulators have reportedly put a temporary pause in place tied to their investigation into Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of the company. Regulators are reportedly awaiting more information from both Amazon and iRobot.