Finance

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to acquire a payments startup called Renovite to fend off threats from fintech firms including Stripe and Block, CNBC has learned.
While JPMorgan is often content to partner with fintechs and take relatively small stakes in them, the bank felt that Renovite’s product was too important not to own outright, according to a JPMorgan executive.
The acquisition, reported first by CNBC, is the latest in a string of recent fintech deals made under CEO Jamie Dimon. The bank has acquired at least five fintech startups since late 2020.

The main entrance at JPMorgan’s headquarters in New York City.
Erik McGregor | LightRocket | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to acquire a payments startup called Renovite to fend off threats from fintech firms including Stripe and Block , CNBC has learned.
The bank, a major player in the global payments arena, said that acquiring Fremont, California based Renovite will speed up its ability to roll out new offerings to merchants.

While JPMorgan is the world’s biggest provider of merchant services by transaction volume, fast-growing upstarts including Stripe and Block have climbed the rankings in recent years, thanks to booming e-commerce sales and the proliferation of new payment methods. Merchant acquirers are crucial, behind-the-scenes providers that enable sellers to accept in-person and online payments, keeping a small cut of each transaction.
Despite operating a payments juggernaut that processes more than $9 trillion daily across several businesses, JPMorgan’s merchant acquiring revenue stalled last year in part because it was behind in some e-commerce segments and offered fewer services than some fintech rivals, global payments chief Takis Georgakopoulos told investors in a May conference.
“Changing that picture is a big story behind our investments,” Georgakopoulos vowed.

Shopping spree

The Renovite acquisition, reported first by CNBC, is the latest in a string of fintech deals made under CEO Jamie Dimon. Since late 2020, JPMorgan has acquired at least five startups, from an ESG investing platform to a UK-based roboadvisor, on top of making a series of smaller fintech investments.
Dimon has repeatedly raised the alarm about the threat fintech players pose to traditional banks, especially in the highly competitive payments game.

Fintech players have used payments processing for merchants as a wedge to help them build ecosystems that have garnered eye-watering valuations. They also have generally been more nimble in enabling new payment methods like offerings from Klarna and Affirm.
Dimon has been forced to defend his bank’s rising expenses this year as it plows billions of dollars into technology amid a 25% stock slump driven by recession fears.
The Renovite deal, for terms that couldn’t be determined, shows that the longtime CEO is undeterred by concerns that he’s spending too much on tech.

From trials to takeover

JPMorgan ran trials with Renovite as a vendor last fall, but was impressed enough with the startup’s products — especially a cloud-based switch that routes payments to various providers — that it decided to acquire the company outright, according to Mike Blandina, the bank’s global head of payments technology.
The plug-and-play nature of the switch platform allows JPMorgan to add new payments options in a fraction of the time it used to take because it requires far less coding, he said in an interview.
“Our clients really value choice; they want to offer many different payment methods to their clients, whether it’s Visa, MasterCard, but also Buy-now, pay-later, etc,” said Max Neukirchen, the firm’s global head of payments & commerce solutions.
“The ability to turn on these very country-specific payments methods also helps us in our geographic expansion, because we don’t need to spend a lot of time building out local payment methods,” he added.
While JPMorgan is often content to partner with fintechs and take relatively small stakes in them, the bank felt that Renovite’s product was too important not to own, Neukirchen said.
The bank also coveted the firm’s roughly 125 engineers, located in India and the U.K., to help JPMorgan on its product roadmap, he added.

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JPMorgan analysts laid out the potential for billions if not trillions of dollars in a potential metaverse market in China.
They picked three China internet stocks likely to benefit the most.
However, the metaverse concept has yet to take off in the U.S., while heavy regulation in China poses a risk to its development in the Asian country.

Some parts of China have officially promoted metaverse development plans. Pictured here is a metaverse exhibition area at an annual services trade expo in Beijing on Sept. 1, 2022.
China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images

BEIJING — When it comes to futuristic concepts like the metaverse, JPMorgan analysts think they’ve found a strategy for selecting Chinese stock plays.
The metaverse is loosely defined as the next iteration of the internet, existing as a virtual world in which humans interact via three-dimensional avatars. Hype around the metaverse swept through the business industry about a year ago. But in the United States at least, it isn’t gaining the momentum that companies such as Facebook had hoped.

The social network giant even changed its name to Meta last year. However, its shares are down more than 50% this year — far worse than the Nasdaq’s roughly 24% decline.
China faces the same consumer adoption problems as the United States. But the Asian country’s metaverse development faces its own challenge of regulatory scrutiny, something the JPMorgan analysts pointed out in their Sept. 7 report. Cryptocurrencies, a major element of the metaverse outside China, are also banned within the country.
Nevertheless, the stock analysts said some Chinese internet companies can make money from particular industry trends driven by the metaverse’s development.

Top picks

Their top picks in the sector are Tencent, NetEase and Bilibili. And among non-internet names in Asia, companies like Agora, China Mobile and Sony made JPMorgan’s list of potential beneficiaries.

That’s based on the companies’ competitive edge in particular aspects of the metaverse, such as gaming and social networks.

“Development of mobile internet and AI in the past 5-10 years suggests that a company’s competitive advantage in one part of the tech ecosystem is often more important in determining long-term value creation to shareholders than which part of the ecosystem the company operates in,” analyst Daniel Chen and his team said in the report.
Here are two main ways that companies can make money as the metaverse develops, the analysts said.

Gaming and intellectual property

In JPMorgan’s most optimistic scenario, China’s online game market nearly triples to $131 billion from $44 billion.
Tencent and NetEase both have strong gaming businesses and partnerships with global industry leaders, the analysts said.
For example, Tencent has a stake in virtual world game company Roblox, while NetEase has partnered with Warner Bros. for a Harry Potter-themed mobile game, the report pointed out.

Digitalization of business and consumption

“The metaverse will likely double digital time spent” from the current average of 6.6 hours, the analysts said. They also expect companies will be able to generate more revenue per internet user.
JPMorgan estimates the total addressable market in China for business services and software in the metaverse will be $27 billion, while digitalizing the offline consumption of goods and services will make up a $4 trillion market in China.
In business services, NetEase already has a virtual meeting room system called Yaotai, while Tencent operates a videoconferencing app called Tencent Meeting, the report pointed out.
Tencent also has “rich experience in managing China’s largest social network Weixin/mobile QQ” and can benefit from virtual item sales within those platforms, the analysts said.
Similarly, Bilibili’s “high user engagement will enable it to capture rich monetization potential in [value added service]/virtual item sales in the long run,” the analysts said.
They noted the app is the “go-to entertainment platform” for Chinese people aged 35 and below, with each user spending an average of 95 minutes a day on the platform in the first quarter.

‘Obstacles to overcome’

But it remains unclear how practical such efforts will be from a business perspective.
Without naming the companies as stock picks, the JPMorgan analysts described a number of other metaverse projects underway in China, such as Baidu’s virtual XiRang world, and virtual reality development by Baidu-backed iQiyi, NetEase and Bilibili.
The analysts said virtual reality devices are currently too heavy to be used for long periods of time, and cloud computing capabilities and metaverse content remain limited.
“We think ‘perfect form’ of the metaverse could take decades to achieve,” the analysts said. “While we believe the [total addressable market] for the metaverse is enormous, we believe there are various technological obstacles to overcome.”
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

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Fed Governor Christopher Waller on Friday made comments indicating he could back another 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase later this month.
He further suggested the Fed get away from its practice of providing “forward guidance” on what its future path would be.

Christopher Waller, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for governor of the Federal Reserve, speaks during a Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S, on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Friday echoed recent sentiments from his colleagues, saying he expects a big interest rate increase later this month.
He also said policymakers should stop trying to guess the future and instead stick to what the data is saying.

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“Looking ahead to our next meeting, I support another significant increase in the policy rate,” Waller said in remarks prepared for a speech in Vienna. “But, looking further out, I can’t tell you about the appropriate path of policy. The peak range and how fast we will move there will depend on data we will receive about the economy.”
Those comments are similar to recent remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Vice Chair Lael Brainard and others, who said they are resolute in the effort to bring down inflation.

Markets strongly expect the central bank to take up its benchmark borrowing rate by 0.75 percent point, which would be the third consecutive move of that magnitude and the fastest pace of monetary tightening since the Fed began using the benchmark funds rate as its chief policy tool in the early 1990s.
While Waller did not commit to a particular increase, his comments had a mostly hawkish tone that indicated he would support the 0.75-point move, as opposed to a half-point increase.
“Based on all of the data that we have received since the FOMC’s last meeting, I believe the policy decision at our next meeting will be straightforward,” he said. “Because of the strong labor market, right now there is no tradeoff between the Fed’s employment and inflation objectives, so we will continue to aggressively fight inflation.

If the Fed does implement the three-quarter point hike, it would take benchmark rates up to a range of 3%-3.25%. Waller said that if inflation does not abate through the rest of the year, the Fed may have to take the rate “well above 4%.”
He further suggested the Fed get away from its practice of providing “forward guidance” on what its future path would be and the factors that would come into play to dictate those moves.
“I believe forward guidance is becoming less useful at this stage of the tightening cycle,” he said. “Future decisions on the size of additional rate increases and the destination for the policy rate in this cycle should be solely determined by the incoming data and their implications for economic activity, employment, and inflation.”
Waller pointed out welcome signs that inflation is moderating from its highest peak in more than 40 years.
The personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, rose 6.3% from a year ago in July — 4.6% excluding food and energy. That’s still well above the central bank’s 2% long-run goal, and Waller said inflation remains “widespread” even with the recent softening.
He also noted that inflation looked to be softening at one point last year, then turned sharply higher to where the consumer price index rose 9% on a year-over-year basis at one point.
“The consequences of being fooled by a temporary softening in inflation could be even greater now if another misjudgment damages the Fed’s credibility. So, until I see a meaningful and persistent moderation of the rise in core prices, I will support taking significant further steps to tighten monetary policy,” he said.
Kansas City Fed President Esther George also spoke Friday, echoing concerns over inflation but also advocating a more deliberate approach to policy tightening.
“As unsatisfying as it might be, weighing in on the peak policy rate is likely just speculation at this point,” she said.
“We will have to determine the course of our policy through observation rather than reference to theoretical models or pre-pandemic trends,” George added. “Given the likely lags in the passthrough of tighter monetary policy to real economic conditions, this argues for steadiness and purposefulness over speed.”
George was the only Federal Open Market Committee member to vote against June’s three-quarter point rate increase, advocating instead for a half-point move, though she did vote for the July hike.

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The Kroger supermarket chain’s headquarters is shown in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Lisa Baertlein | Reuters

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading Friday.
Zscaler — Zscaler surged 21.9% after reporting strong earnings in its most recent quarter. The company posted adjusted earnings of 25 cents per share on $318 million in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting earnings of 20 cents per share on revenues of $305 million.

DocuSign — Shares jumped 10.5% after the electronic agreement company’s quarterly numbers topped analyst expectations. DocuSign’s revenue guidance for the third quarter was also above expectations, and its full-year outlook was in line with estimates.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals — The pharmaceutical stock gained 2.2% after Morgan Stanley upgraded shares to overweight from equal weight following the release of positive results from its eye drug trial. Regeneron soared nearly 19% the prior day on the back of those results.
Lyft — The ride-hailing company popped 5.5% amid rumors on social media platforms that Lyft could be an acquisition target. The stock jumped 17% the prior day.
Kroger — Shares traded 7.4% higher after the supermarket chain surpassed earnings expectations for the previous quarter and raised its full-year guidance.
GameStop, Bed Bath & Beyond — Two of the main meme stocks outperformed on Friday as investors piled back into risk assets. Shares of GameStop rose nearly 12%, while Bed Bath & Beyond jumped 8.1%. There was no clear catalyst for either stock’s move.

RH — Shares of the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware rose 4.5% after a better-than-expected quarterly report. RH earned an adjusted $8.08 per share on $992 million of revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had penciled in $6.71 per share on $968 million of revenue. However, the company did project for third quarter net revenue to be down between 15% and 18%, and its CEO said on the analyst call that the economy is in a recession.
Tesla — Tesla’s stock rose 3.6% after a letter to the Texas Comptroller’s Office revealed that the electric car giant is weighing building a lithium factory in the state for electric vehicle batteries.
Navient — Shares of the student loan servicer fell 3.2% after Barclays downgraded the stock to equal weight, citing risks from President Joe Biden’s debt forgiveness plan that could potentially hurt the company’s earnings going forward.
Enphase Energy — Enphase dropped 3.7% after Guggenheim downgraded shares to neutral from buy, saying the energy stock is “now fairly valued and that upside to our estimates is unlikely.”
Virgin Galactic — Shares of Virgin Galactic tumbled 4.5% after Bernstein downgraded the stock to underperform from market perform and cut its price target to $4 from $7 per share. Analyst Douglas Harned cited declining confidence in the success of the space tourism company’s business.
Caterpillar — The stock rose 3.5% after the construction equipment maker said it reached a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service, resolving a multiyear tax dispute without penalties.
National Beverage — Shares dropped 7.4% after the company disappointed in its most recent earnings report. National Beverage reported earnings of 38 cents per share on revenue of $318.12 million, compared with consensus estimates of 55 cents earnings per share on revenue of $327.29 million, according to StreetAccount.
Zumiez — The apparel retail company saw shares fall 3.8% after it reported disappointing results for its most recent quarter. The company posted earnings of 16 cents per share, which missed a StreetAccount estimate of 47 cents per share. The company’s gross margin also fell short of expectations.
— CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel, Jesse Pound, Samantha Subin, Michelle Fox Theobald contributed reporting.

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“In a world rapidly moving to clean energy, companies that are dependent on fossil fuels put investors at greater risk,” Wall Street billionaire Mike Bloomberg wrote on Tuesday. “The fact is: Climate risk is financial risk.”
BlackRock said it is “among the largest investors in public energy companies,” and has $170 billion invested in United States energy companies and that recent investments include natural gas, renewables and “decarbonization technology that needs capital to scale.”
BlackRock also says that it requests climate-related financial disclosures from companies in order to improve transparency and be able to make quality investment decisions for clients. Bloomberg called this investing 101.

Larry Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc.
Christopher Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Billionaire businessman and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the investing behemoth BlackRock have both recently issued their own strongly worded missives defending investments in climate solutions and clean energy and saying that requesting climate-related risk disclosures from companies is smart capitalism.
The letters come as political pressure mounts against the idea of environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds, which purport to give people an easy way to invest in companies acting responsibly in those areas. Critics, particularly on the Republican side, have said ESG is a cover for a political agenda and is partly aimed against fossil fuel producers.

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Bloomberg, who is currently worth almost $77 billion according to Forbes, published an op-ed in his namesake media publication on Tuesday deriding the Republican-led efforts to politicize investment decisions in climate solutions and clean energy.
“In a world rapidly moving to clean energy, companies that are dependent on fossil fuels put investors at greater risk,” Bloomberg wrote.
“The fact is: Climate risk is financial risk. Costs from climate-related weather events now exceed $100 billion annually — and that is only counting insured losses,” Bloomberg wrote. “Accounting for these and other losses isn’t social policy. It’s smart investing. And refusing to allow firms to do it comes with a big cost to taxpayers.”
On Wednesday, BlackRock sent a letter to a collection of attorney generals which defended its engagement in measuring the climate risk of companies and investing in clean energy as responsibly carrying out its fiduciary duty to clients.
“Our commitment to our clients’ financial interests is unwavering and undivided,” wrote BlackRock’s senior managing director and head of external affairs, Dalia Blass.

“Governments representing over 90 percent of global GDP have committed to move to net-zero in the coming decades. We believe investors and companies that take a forward-looking position with respect to climate risk and its implications for the energy transition will generate better long-term financial outcomes,” Blass wrote. “These opportunities cut across the political spectrum.”

Former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg speaks during a meeting with Earthshot prize winners and finalists at the Glasgow Science Center during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021.
Alastair Grant | Reuters

BlackRock’s letter was specifically responding to an Aug. 4 letter from 19 state attorneys general to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, in which they objected to what they called a bias against fossil fuels.
“BlackRock’s past public commitments indicate that it has used citizens’ assets to pressure companies to comply with international agreements such as the Paris Agreement that force the phase-out of fossil fuels, increase energy prices, drive inflation, and weaken the national security of the United States,” the attorney generals state.
Specific state lawmakers have adopted legislation for their own states “prohibiting energy boycotts,” the letter from attorney generals states. For example, later in August, Texas comptroller Glenn Hegar accused ten financial companies, including BlackRock, and 350 investment funds of taking steps to “boycott energy companies.”
BlackRock objected to the idea that it is boycotting energy companies or operating with a political agenda.
BlackRock is “among the largest investors in public energy companies,” and has $170 billion invested in United States energy companies. Recent investments include natural gas, renewables and “decarbonization technology that needs capital to scale,” BlackRock said in its letter.
BlackRock also said that it requests climate-related financial disclosures from companies in order to improve transparency and be able to make quality investment decisions for clients.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, said that measuring climate risk is just basic investing.
“Any responsible money manager, especially one with a fiduciary duty to taxpayers, seeks to build a diversified portfolio (including on energy); identifies and mitigates risk (including the risks associated with climate change); and considers macro trends that are shaping industries and markets (such as the steadily declining price of clean power),” Bloomberg wrote.
“That’s investing 101, and either Republican critics of ESG don’t understand it, or they are catering to the interests of fossil fuel companies. It may well be both.”

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Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.
DocuSign — Shares of the electronic signature company surged 16.4% after DocuSign’s quarterly numbers beat Wall Street expectations. DocuSign also shared revenue guidance for the third quarter above expectations and an outlook for the full year that fell in line with estimates.

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Zscaler — Zscaler soared 14.1% after posting strong results for the recent quarter. The cloud security company reported adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share on $318 million in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had anticipated earnings of 20 cents a share on revenues of $305 million.
RH — The luxury home furnishing retailer’s stock fell 1% on the back of disappointing revenue guidance. RH expects third-quarter revenue to decline between 15% and 18%, more than a StreetAccount forecast for a 10.7% drop.
Virgin Galactic — Shares of the space tourism company slipped 1.9% after Bernstein downgraded the stock to underperform, citing declining confidence in Virgin Galactic’s business as it burns through cash and delays flights.
Tesla — Tesla shares rose 1.3% in the premarket following news that the electric vehicle maker is considering building a lithium refinery for EV battery production in Texas this year, according to an application filed with the Texas Comptroller’s Office.
Navient — Shares slipped 2.1% after Barclays downgraded the student loan servicer’s stock to equal weight. The firm said President Joe Biden’s debt forgiveness plan could hurt Navient’s earnings going forward.

Regeneron — Regeneron’s stock moved about 1% higher in the premarket after Morgan Stanley upgraded shares to overweight following positive results from its eye drug trial. It comes a day after the stock soared nearly 19% on the back of those results.
Zumiez — Shares of the clothing store company fell 13% in the premarket after disappointing quarterly results. Zumiez earned 16 cents per share, below a StreetAccount estimate of 47 cents per share. The company’s gross margin was also below expectations.

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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday he is “strongly committed” to fighting inflation.
The Fed has raised benchmark interest rates four times this year, with the fed funds rate now set in a range between 2.25%-2.50%.
This was the Fed chief’s last publicly scheduled appearance before the central bank’s Sept. 20-21 meeting.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in an appearance Thursday emphasized the importance of getting inflation down now before the public gets too used to higher prices and comes to expect them as the norm.
In his latest comments underlining his commitment to the inflation fight, Powell said expectations play an important role and were a critical reason why inflation was so persistent in the 1970s and ’80s.

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“History cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy,” the central bank leader said in a Q&A presented by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C. “I can assure you that my colleagues and I are strongly committed to this project and we will keep at it until the job is done.”
The event was Powell’s last scheduled public appearance before the Fed’s next meeting on Sept. 20-21.
Markets largely took the comments in stride, with major averages little changed in the early going on Wall Street. Treasury yields were mostly higher, with the two-year note, the most sensitive to Fed rate hikes, rising by nearly five basis points to 3.49%. A basis point equals 0.01 percentage point.
The Fed has raised benchmark interest rates four times this year, with the fed funds rate now set in a range between 2.25%-2.50%.

Markets widely expect the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee to enact a third consecutive 0.75 percentage point increase this month. In fact, that probability rose to 86% during Powell’s remarks, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tracker of fed funds futures bets. Both Goldman Sachs and Bank of America told clients to expect that three-quarter point hike.

One reason for acting aggressively is to make sure that inflation running around its highest rate in more than 40 years doesn’t become ingrained in the public consciousness, Powell said.
“The Fed has the responsibility for price stability, by which we mean 2% inflation over time,” he said. “The longer inflation remains well above target, the greater the risk the public does begin to see higher inflation as the norm, and that has the capacity to raise the costs of getting inflation down.”
There have been some signs lately that at least the monthly path of inflation is abating. In particular, gasoline prices have been falling steadily after briefly rising above $5 a gallon earlier in the summer.

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The Fed gets its last look at inflation data before the meeting next week, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the August consumer price index data. Economists are expecting a 0.2% headline increase in the CPI after it was flat in July, according to FactSet. However, the year-over-year increase in July was 8.5%, and many areas outside energy saw sizable increases.
Powell said the inflation pressures have come largely from pandemic-specific causes. When inflation first began to rise in the spring of 2021, Powell and his colleagues dismissed it as “transitory” and did not respond with any major policy moves before starting to hike rates in March 2022.
However, he said it’s incumbent now on the Fed to keep acting until inflation falls and avoid the consequences of the 1970s when a failure to implement an aggressive policy response allowed public expectations for high inflation to fester.
“We need to act now, forthrightly, strongly, as we have been, and we need to keep at it until the job is done to avoid that,” he said.
Powell noted the strong labor market, with robust levels of hiring persisting despite the rate increases, even as Fed officials expect the official unemployment rate to drift higher. He warned last month that the economy could experience “some pain” from tighter policy but said slowing growth is necessary to tame inflation.
“What we hope to achieve is a period of growth below trend which will cause the labor market to get back into better balance and that will bring wages back down to levels that are more consistent with 2% inflation over time,” he said.

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Interior Design area of the Restoration Hardware store in the Meatpacking District of New York.
Source: RH

Check out the companies making headlines after hours.
DocuSign — Shares surged more than 17% after the electronic agreements company reported an earnings beat, and issued a third-quarter revenue forecast that was above expectations. DocuSign reported earnings of 44 cents per share on revenue of $622 million. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv estimated earnings of 42 cents per share on revenue of $602 million.

Zscaler — The stock jumped 10.9% after Zscaler reported better-than-expected results. Zscaler earned 25 cents per share, on a non-GAAP basis, beating consensus estimates of 20 cents per share, according to Refinitiv. Revenue came in at $318 million, outpacing forecasts of $305 million.
RH — Shares rose 1.3% after the luxury home furnishings retailer reported earnings that beat profit and revenue expectations. However, the company also issued a weaker-than-expected third-quarter revenue outlook, saying higher mortgage rates will weigh on the housing market.

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