Black Friday stocks are the talk of Wall Street after the commercial holiday recorded yet another record-setting year. Indeed, a number of commerce stocks are in the green today after indicators showed that U.S. Black Friday sales increased 2.5% from last year, per Mastercard SpendingPulse. Online shopping in particular ramped up even more this year, to $9.8 billion on Black Friday. That’s a 7.5% jump from last year.
Who were this year’s big winners?
Well, Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM), Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Jumia (NYSE:JMIA) are among Wall Street’s favorites following this year’s profitable Black Friday and the yet-to-be-concluded Cyber Monday.
Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) payment processing company Affirm is perhaps the single-biggest winner of this year’s Black Friday. AFRM stock closed up by about 12% today. Indeed, Americans increasingly financed purchases with BNPL this past weekend, contributing to $760 million in online spending, a 20% increase from last year. Adobe Analytics expects BNPL to drive an additional $782 million on Cyber Monday spending, up 18.8% from 2022.
“An uncertain demand environment pushed retailers to deliver big discounts this season, while also fortifying their e-commerce services with flexible payment methods,” said Adobe Digital Insights Lead Analyst Vivek Pandya. “Consumers have taken note and spent at record rates during the big shopping days, despite dealing with rising costs in other parts of their lives.”
Black Friday Stocks Climb on Record-Setting Year
With that said, African marketplace Jumia isn’t too far behind AFRM stock. JMIA stock closed up more than 10% today, although it’s unclear how the company performed over the weekend.
Shopify also enjoyed a strong weekend. Indeed, Shopify merchants recorded $4.1 billion in sales on Black Friday, a 22% jump from the year prior. This has pushed Shopify shares to nearly $74 per share, SHOP stock’s highest level in 2023.
Meanwhile, Amazon is, well, Amazon. The e-commerce giant has yet to release data on its weekend sales, but most analysts expect the company to enjoy yet another highly profitable Black Friday and Cyber Monday. AMZN stock closed the day up by less than 1% as investors await its weekend results. Interestingly, as part of its Black Friday promotions, Amazon included its first-ever Friday NFL broadcast on Prime Video.
On the date of publication, Shrey Dua did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
