1. Spending on Black Friday was a little stronger than expected, according to Mastercard data. It was up 3.4% overall while e-commerce was up 14.6%. Brick and mortar was up just 0.7%, which jibes with the performance over the last few weeks of Best Buy, a disappointing Club stock. Mastercard called out online apparel shopping as especially strong.
2. Bernstein named Block its new best idea into 2025, with analysts expecting point-of-sale platform Square to see acceleration of gross payment volume and profitability expansion. It’s the usual story. Almost every time this one disappoints, but the analysts simply can’t stay away from it for the desire to have e-commerce. Elsewhere in fintech, JPMorgan upped its price target on Affirm to $74 a share from $56. The firm also went to $16 a share from $9 on SoFi, which has broken out.
3. Wells Fargo lowered its PT on Coca-Colato $75 a …