What Happened?
Shares of online travel agency Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE) jumped 5.2% in the afternoon session after the company expanded its partnership with financial technology firm Affirm, making it the exclusive Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) provider for its brands in the US.
The multi-year agreement covered Expedia's main brands, including Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo, for lodging and travel packages. This move gave travelers more flexibility in how they paid for trips. The deal also included plans to make Affirm's payment options available to Canadian travelers on certain properties in the near future. By offering installment payments, Expedia aimed to make booking trips easier and more accessible for its customers.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $277.31, up 4.7% from previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Expedia’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 12 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 13 days ago when the stock dropped 3.5% on the news that the U.S. announced potential tariffs on several European countries.
The sell-off was a reaction to news that the White House planned to impose a 10% tariff on imports from eight European nations, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, starting February 1. Reports indicated the tariffs were intended to pressure Denmark over the potential sale of Greenland to the U.S. and could rise to 25% if a deal was not reached. The announcement caused a significant downturn in U.S. stocks, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones falling more than 1.4% as investors returned from a holiday weekend and reacted to the heightened trade uncertainty. The downturn was further exacerbated by a spike in Treasury yields. Higher rates particularly hurt growth stocks such as tech names since investors must discount financials further out in the future back to the present.
Expedia is down 2% since the beginning of the year, but at $277.31 per share, it is still trading close to its 52-week high of $301.31 from January 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Expedia’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,037.
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