ChargePoint plunges despite staving off NYSE delisting

Shares of banks and US financial services companies are under pressure on Monday morning after US President Donald Trump announced his intention to impose a hard limit on how much money they can make off credit cards.

In a Truth Social post on Friday evening, Trump announced that he would be calling for a one-year cap of 10% on credit card interest rates. Over the weekend, the president said that card issuers with a rate above that as of January 20 would be “in violation of the law.”

As of this point, these statements do not appear to carry the force of law.

“While the president has announced his support for a cap, this cannot be done through an executive order," writes George Pollack, senior US policy analyst at Signum Global Advisors. “Instead, this would require an act of Congress.”

Nevertheless, traders are selling first and asking logistical questions later. Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard are lower in premarket trading, as are other financial services companies with a significant footprint in this space. The news is also casting a pall over this week’s bank earnings, with JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo all well in the red.

“President Donald Trump's call for a 10%, one-year cap on credit card interest rates, if enacted, would severely hurt the revenue and profit of Capital One, Synchrony Financial and Bread Financial, with a smaller impact on American Express,” write Bloomberg Intelligence consumer finance analysts Ben Elliott and Edward Najarian. “The companies would likely react by raising fees and rapidly reducing credit availability, especially for below-prime customers.”

Financial services companies that offer “buy now, pay later” options, such as Affirm and Klarna, are rising in premarket trading. If Trump’s proposal is realized, this may result in a pullback in credit provided to lower income and less creditworthy Americans, and BNPL firms could see a resultant uptick in activity. Klarna, for its part, applauded the president’s call in a post on X.

Independent (left-leaning) Senator Bernie Sanders as well Republican Senator Josh Hawley have introduced a bill that would cap credit card rates at 10% for five years, while Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna have introduced similar legislation in the House.

Sandisk leapt Friday, riding a resurgent wave of AI-related market exuberance as well as two price target hikes from Wall Street analysts.

Goldman Sachs lifted its target for the stock to $320 from $280, while keeping a “buy” rating on the stock. Mizhuho lifted its target to a Street high of $410 from its previous target of $250, while maintaining an “outperform” rating on the shares.

Long considered a maker of commodity data storage products, Sandisk was spun off by Western Digital in an IPO in February.

When it dawned on the market sometime in the fall that the AI boom would mean an explosion in demand for data storage, Sandisk shares went parabolic.

Its more than 350% run-up between the ends of August and December led to Sandisk’s inclusion in the S&P 500. And its 560% gain for the year made it the index’s top performer.