What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after a steeper-than-anticipated drop in U.S. consumer confidence raised alarms about future consumer spending.
The Conference Board reported its consumer confidence index fell to 94.2 in September, its lowest reading since April. The decline was attributed to growing pessimism among Americans regarding inflation and a weakening job market. This data is particularly concerning for companies reliant on discretionary spending, such as those in online retail, travel, and the gig economy, as reports suggest a bleak consumer outlook could curb spending on non-essential items and services. The survey's Expectations Index, a measure of short-term outlook, has remained below a key threshold that often signals a future recession, adding to investor concerns about the economic landscape.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Online Retail company Revolve (NYSE: RVLV) fell 3.1%. Is now the time to buy Revolve? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Gig Economy company Upwork (NASDAQ: UPWK) fell 3.9%. Is now the time to buy Upwork? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Consumer Subscription company Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH) fell 3%. Is now the time to buy Match Group? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Upwork (UPWK)
Upwork’s shares are very volatile and have had 20 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 6 days ago when the stock gained 2.7% on the news that positive analyst commentary highlighted signs of a business turnaround.
Citizens JMP raised its price target on the company to $27 from $20, keeping a Market Outperform rating. The firm pointed to Upwork's new enterprise platform, Lifted, as a potential multi-year growth driver that could expand its enterprise services and help it compete with traditional staffing firms.
This followed a similar move from the previous day when UBS increased its price target to $21 from $16. UBS noted that Upwork was close to a turning point in its Gross Services Volume, which measures total sales on its platform, after five straight quarters of declines. The firm believed that stabilizing sales was a key milestone that could reduce investor concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on its business.
Upwork is up 14% since the beginning of the year, and at $18.70 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $20.07 from September 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Upwork’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,072.
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