Latest news with #commerce
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Block, Inc. (XYZ): A Bull Case Theory
We came across a bullish thesis on Block, Inc. (XYZ) on Daniel Romero's Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls' thesis on XYZ. Block, Inc. (XYZ)'s share was trading at $58.74 as of 23rd May. XYZ's trailing and forward P/E were 14.26 and 16 respectively according to Yahoo Finance. Block Inc. is undergoing a pivotal transformation, evolving from a high-growth fintech into a vertically integrated ecosystem that bridges commerce, banking, consumer finance, and emerging technologies. At the heart of this shift are Cash App and Square—dominant platforms in their respective markets—now reinforced by a regulated bank, Square Financial Services, enabling more profitable in-house lending. Cash App serves over 57 million monthly users and has become a central financial tool for younger demographics, particularly with the integration of Afterpay. Meanwhile, Square is pushing deeper into business services, recently launching over 100 new features, including the Square Handheld POS, demonstrating a renewed focus on quality and innovation. Financially, Block is stabilizing, showing 9% YoY revenue growth (ex-Bitcoin), 28% adjusted operating income growth, and improving margins, signaling it is moving from a startup mindset to operating as a scaled platform. The most underappreciated asset may be Tidal, which under Jack Dorsey's vision could evolve into a 'Square for musicians,' integrating payments, royalties, and AI-powered tools for creators. Block's AI push is accelerating, with deployment of NVIDIA's new GB200 systems powering tools across its ecosystem—ranging from AI-assisted website builders and communications to the potential for AI-driven music innovation. Despite recent earnings-driven stock volatility, Block's ambitions to merge its products into a seamless, high-performance ecosystem—spanning business, consumer, Bitcoin, and AI—make its $36B valuation appear reasonable. If executed well, Block could emerge as a misunderstood giant, delivering durable long-term value by unifying commerce and finance with proprietary infrastructure and cutting-edge technology. Previously, we have covered Block, Inc. (XYZ) in March 2025, wherein we summarized a bullish thesis by Long-Term Pick on Substack. The author highlighted Block's strong 2024 growth in profit and cash flow, driven by Square and Cash App, with expectations for continued expansion and margin improvement in 2025. Since our last coverage, the stock is down 6% as of 27th May. Block, Inc. (XYZ) is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 76 hedge fund portfolios held XYZ at the end of the first quarter which was 81 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of XYZ as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than XYZ but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock. Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Finextra
a day ago
- Business
- Finextra
Visa makes AI-driven commerce push in Asia Pacific
The future of commerce in Asia Pacific is on display at the Visa Asia Pacific Media Showcase, where the company announced a suite of product innovations and strategic partnerships to enable a new era of commerce for the region. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer said, 'Combining the strength of our global network with our leadership in payment innovation here in Asia Pacific, we are bringing new products and solutions that will transform commerce and deliver trust and security to AI-enabled payments across the region.' The Visa Asia Pacific media showcase highlighted how AI-enabled digital commerce will significantly change the way consumers across the region discover and purchase products and services. In the near future, AI agents will browse, select, purchase, and manage transactions on behalf of users, making trust in payments more important than ever. Visa's new AI-enabled solutions offer regional partners including AI platforms, fintechs, banks, and merchants a seamless way to connect to the Visa network to deliver secure, frictionless payment experiences. Headlining today's announcement, the company introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce, a new initiative that opens Visa's payments network to developers and engineers building the first generation of AI-powered commerce in Asia Pacific. Visa Intelligent Commerce: A New Era for Asia Pacific Visa Intelligent Commerce brings a suite of integrated APIs and a commercial partner program to AI platforms, enabling developers to deploy Visa's AI commerce capabilities securely and at scale. Visa announced today that it is in explorations with Ant International, Grab and Tencent to grow AI commerce by enabling a secure and seamless checkout experience. Ant International is a leading global digital payment, digitisation, and financial technology provider. Grab is Southeast Asia's leading super app offering ride-hailing, food delivery, digital payments, and financial services across eight markets. Tencent is a multinational technology leader that develops a wide range of digital products and services, including Weixin/WeChat, China's super app. Over the past 25 years, Visa's global network has handled 3.3 trillion transactions. Today, Visa is advancing its infrastructure, standards, and capabilities to power AI-driven commerce, opening new opportunities for consumers across Asia Pacific. Soon, AI agents integrated into familiar platforms will be able to transact using Visa's 4.8 billion credentials at millions of merchant locations worldwide. T.R. Ramachandran, Head of Products and Solutions, Asia Pacific, Visa, said, 'As global commerce continues to evolve rapidly, Visa remains at the forefront of delivering innovations that will enable the future of commerce across Asia Pacific.' 'We believe AI agents will play a growing role in commerce, from handling routine purchases such as ordering food, to more complex purchases such as securing event tickets or making travel reservations,' added Ramachandran. 'By combining AI capabilities with Visa's trusted payment infrastructure, we are enabling a seamless, secure, and more enjoyable experience for consumers, merchants, and businesses alike.' New Products and Capabilities for Asia Pacific Visa continues to expand its product portfolio with solutions designed to support the evolving payment needs of consumers and businesses across Asia Pacific. Stablecoins: Visa has been facilitating cryptocurrency transactions for over five years and is now expanding its offering to include stablecoin backed cards, settlement, and programmable money. On and off-ramps via stablecoin-backed cards allow consumers to use their Visa credentials to buy stablecoins with fiat currency and pay with stablecoin across Visa-accepting merchant locations. In Asia Pacific, Visa is partnering with DCS Singapore, DTC Pay and StraitsX on stablecoin-backed cards that support conversion through regulated infrastructure. Enabling seven-day-a-week settlement for stablecoins: Visa has settled more than $225 million to date in stablecoin volume that has been settled through Visa across participating clients. In Asia Pacific, Visa is working with StraitsX for stablecoin settlement. Through the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP), Visa provides a platform for our partners to issue and manage fiat-backed tokens, offering interconnectivity to public and private blockchains, enabling programmable financing, trading of tokenized assets and facilitating cross-border money movement. Visa is looking to expand the availability of VTAP to more partners later this year and into 2026. Flex Credential: Visa's Flex Credential, a next-generation card that allows users to toggle between debit, credit, and reward points, continues to gain traction in Asia Pacific. Visa first launched Flex in partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company (SMCC), known as Olive, two years ago in Japan. Today, more than 5 million Olive account holders are benefitting from the Visa Flex Credential. The Olive card continues to outperform, with cardholder transactions averaging 40% higher than the national average in Japan over the past year. Visa and SMCC have expanded the Visa Flex Credential to support small businesses with the flexibility to switch between business and personal accounts using the same Olive card, enhancing access to credit and cash flow management. Visa is also collaborating with local banks in Vietnam to launch Flex Credential in the next few months. New Strategic Partnerships to Enable More Ways to Pay and Get Paid Visa is launching new services and partnerships to make it easier for consumers, merchants, and businesses in Asia Pacific to pay and get paid. Visa Pay: A service designed to connect any participating wallet to any Visa-accepting merchant, local or international, in-store or online, launches across Asia Pacific, home to the largest number of digital wallet users. Through partnerships with leading players including LINE Pay in Taiwan, Maya in the Philippines, OpenRice in Hong Kong, and Woori Card in South Korea, Visa is expanding access to its global network, giving consumers more ways to pay globally by tapping, scanning or online. Digital Identity: This suite of solutions includes Passkeys, Tap to Confirm, and enhanced data which are meant to identify and authenticate digital users. These solutions will reduce friction for consumers by being digitally native while improving payment security and authorisation rates with enhanced transaction data and state-of-the-art fraud prevention techniques. New partners in the region include Coles, a supermarket chain in Australia and Maybank, a leading financial services provider in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Visa Accept is a new solution that allows micro-sellers to receive payments directly to their eligible Visa debit card using any NFC-enabled smartphone. Launching in Vietnam, the service supports micro-entrepreneurs and informal sellers such as street vendors, freelancers, and rural service providers. Participating issuers will enable cardholders to accept contactless payments through their bank's mobile app.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Four Customer Service Trends Every Business Leader Should Know
Michael Podolsky, Cofounder and CEO of PissedConsumer, a review platform that helps consumers be heard and brands improve their service. getty The world of commerce is in a constant state of change and evolution, with technological advancements revolutionizing how brands and consumers interact with breathtaking frequency. It would be unrealistic to think that customer expectations would not follow suit—increasing interconnection and access to information has given consumers greater insight into company practices and products and, with that, an impactful voice that companies need to pay attention to if they are to stay competitive in 2025 and beyond. With the wind blowing more and more in a direction chosen by the consumer, wouldn't it be wise to listen to what they have to say? As I'll get into later, multiple surveys asking for consumers' feedback show just how rapidly consumer preferences are changing—and some reports investigate current consumer experiences with customer support, providing a look into the challenges and opportunities brands face in the race to stay not only relevant but top tier. So, what can we learn from this consumer feedback and customer service data? What four customer service trends in 2025 will matter for businesses? Let's take a look: What should be the basics of good customer service is an extremely common cause for complaint. According to my company's customer service trends report, 58.3% of respondents say that they have received no response whatsoever after reaching out to a company's customer support. It makes me worry that so many businesses drop the ball here. This is not just a common courtesy; the absence of a response is a surefire way to alienate your customer base and send them straight to competitors. A simple acknowledgment does a lot of good work here, but it needs to lead to something more. According to a study commissioned by Forbes Advisor, 48% of consumers say they would spend extra in return for dependable, high-quality customer support—I think this fact alone should be sufficient inspiration to improve customer service. Of course, the quality of customer support is not just measured by manner; outcomes are just as important. I believe that whether a customer's problem was actually fixed will be a stronger determinant of the customer's perception of your company than how polite your customer service was when failing to propose a satisfactory solution. Proper staff training is the answer here. A confident, knowledgeable customer service agent given the freedom to act on their own initiative can propose immediate steps toward a resolution or even fully solve the customer's issue on the spot. Generative AI has transformed how consumers search and interact online. Granted, the efficiencies of AI integration have benefited both sides of the customer service coin in numerous ways. Yet, feedback tells us that consumers remain ambivalent. A recent survey from Euromonitor International found that around 25% of consumers believe fitting product recommendations to be the main advantage of AI in the customer journey. When it comes to troubleshooting and customer service, many customers would still rather explain their issue to a human ear, with almost 65% of respondents in my company's survey sharing that they prefer to contact a brand via phone or email. Now, this isn't necessarily a drawback from the business perspective, as our survey respondents note that a phone call to customer service usually results in a resolution of their issue on the same day. Furthermore, the convenience of email gives space for both sides to consider and compose a response. However, again, many customers still complain that they receive no reply whatsoever after sending an email. The lesson here is that chatbots and AI features should be used to supplement trained call center staff—as an enhancement, not a wholesale replacement. Disgruntled customers can be so irritated by what they perceive as poor handling of their case that they will go out of their way to make sure that others don't find themselves in a similar situation. In fact, research commissioned by Khoros with Forrester Reporting found that 65% of customers have switched to another company because of bad customer service. Needless to say, these individuals will not only abandon a company, but they'll have the potential to cause significant collateral damage, too, if they pen a scathing review of a brand. Brands that put an effort into cultivating an excellent customer experience typically pay close attention to their online reviews and customer service insights, proactively engage with their online criticism and, crucially, train their customer service staff to a level that equips them with the means to properly address customer concerns. What do I think is the key practical takeaway from these customer service statistics? Good customer service is built on connecting with the customer. While the marginal to superlative gains offered by emerging tech and tools are absolutely worthy, they only get real results if supported by an ethos that is learning focused and customer-centric. Put simply, invest in understanding what your customers want and delivering it. Ensure your customer service is available where the customer wants it, engage with them promptly and empower your customer service operation with the knowledge and capability (human and automated) to provide smooth, stress-free customer service solutions. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
CNET
3 days ago
- Business
- CNET
Federal Court Blocks Trump's Tariffs, Finding the President Overstepped His Authority
A federal court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs from going into effect, ruling that the emergency-powers law invoked by the administration doesn't give the president authority to impose duties on goods from nearly every US trading partner. The three-judge panel at the New York-based US Court of International Trade concluded that Congress has exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries and that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 -- the crux of Trump's argument to impose the tariffs -- doesn't give the president "unbounded" authority to impose the duties. "An unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government," the court wrote in its opinion. "Regardless of whether the court views the President's actions through the nondelegation doctrine, through the major questions doctrine, or simply with separation of powers in mind, any interpretation of IEEPA that delegates unlimited tariff authority is unconstitutional." White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that trade deficits amount to a national emergency "that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base -- facts that the court did not dispute." He added that "the administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness." Trump has repeatedly said the tariffs would bring back manufacturing jobs to the US and help reduce the federal budget deficit. But since Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs in April, global financial markets were left upended and many business leaders sounded alarms about the economic damage they would cause. Since then, the president has repeatedly delayed the enforcement of certain rates, most recently kicking a 50% duty against the European Union to July at the earliest, leaving a lot of uncertainty in the present moment.
Arab News
3 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
US court blocks Trump's tariffs, says president exceeded his authority
NEW YORK: A US trade court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump's tariffs from going into effect in a sweeping ruling that the president overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from nations that sell more to the United States than they buy. The Court of International Trade said the US Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries that is not overridden by the president's emergency powers to safeguard the US economy. 'The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President's use of tariffs as leverage. That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it,' a three-judge panel said in the decision. The Trump administration minutes later filed a notice of appeal and questioned the authority of the court. The decisions of the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade, which hears disputes involving international trade and customs laws, can be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., and ultimately the US Supreme Court. Trump has made charging US importers tariffs on goods from foreign countries the central policy of his ongoing trade wars, which have severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets. Companies of all sizes have been whipsawed by Trump's swift imposition of tariffs and sudden reversals as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. White House reacts A White House spokesperson on Wednesday said US trade deficits with other countries constituted 'a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base – facts that the court did not dispute.' 'It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,' Kush Desai, the spokesperson, said in a statement. Financial markets cheered the ruling. The US dollar rallied following the court's order, surging against currencies such as the euro, yen and the Swiss franc in particular. Wall Street futures rose and equities across Asia also rose. The ruling, if it stands, blows a giant hole through Trump's strategy to use steep tariffs to wring concessions from trading partners, draw manufacturing jobs back to US shores and shrink a $1.2 trillion US goods trade deficit, which were among his key campaign promises. Without the instant leverage provided by the tariffs of 10 percent to 54 percent that Trump declared under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — which is meant to address 'unusual and extraordinary' threats during a national emergency — the Trump administration would have to take a slower approach of lengthier trade investigations under other trade laws to back its tariff threats. The ruling came in a pair of lawsuits, one filed by the nonpartisan Liberty Justice Center on behalf of five small US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the duties and the other by 13 US states. The companies, which range from a New York wine and spirits importer to a Virginia-based maker of educational kits and musical instruments, have said the tariffs will hurt their ability to do business. 'There is no question here of narrowly tailored relief; if the challenged Tariff Orders are unlawful as to Plaintiffs they are unlawful as to all,' the trade court wrote in its decision. At least five other legal challenges to the tariffs are pending. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, a Democrat whose office is leading the states' lawsuit, called Trump's tariffs unlawful, reckless and economically devastating. 'This ruling reaffirms that our laws matter, and that trade decisions can't be made on the president's whim,' Rayfield said in a statement. Trump has claimed broad authority to set tariffs under IEEPA. The law has historically been used to impose sanctions on enemies of the US or freeze their assets. Trump is the first US president to use it to impose tariffs. The Justice Department has said the lawsuits should be dismissed because the plaintiffs have not been harmed by tariffs that they have not yet paid, and because only Congress, not private businesses, can challenge a national emergency declared by the president under IEEPA. In imposing the tariffs in early April, Trump called the trade deficit a national emergency that justified his 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all imports, with higher rates for countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits, particularly China. Many of those country-specific tariffs were paused a week later. The Trump administration on May 12 said it was also temporarily reducing the steepest tariffs on China while working on a longer-term trade deal. Both countries agreed to cut tariffs on each other for at least 90 days.
