PayPal was spun off from eBay in 2015 and provides electronic payment solutions to merchants and consumers, with a focus on online transactions. The company had 426 million active accounts at the end of 2023. The company also owns Venmo, a person-to-person payment platform.

ASML is the leader in photolithography systems used in the manufacturing of semiconductors. Photolithography is the process in which a light source is used to expose circuit patterns from a photo mask onto a semiconductor wafer. The latest technological advances in this segment allow chipmakers to continually increase the number of transistors on the same area of silicon, with lithography historically representing a high portion of the cost of making cutting-edge chips. ASML outsources the manufacturing of most of its parts, acting like an assembler. ASML’s main clients are TSMC, Samsung, and Intel.

Two important inflation reports released last week indicated that overall pricing pressures have retreated from peaks in 2022. But both also confirmed that inflation remains above the Fed's target of 2.0% and progress to that level may be hard to achieve. With the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, there were some positive results. The overall inflation rate in June was 3.0%, lower than the prior month's 3.3%. That good news was further supported by a decline in core CPI, which excludes the impact of food and energy and rose at an annual pace of 3.3% over the past year, lower by 10 basis points month over month. What's propping up that core CPI? Transportation Services (+9.4% YOY) and Shelter (+5.2% YOY), which have prices that don't typically fall sharply. In contrast, prices for Gasoline and New & Used Cars are actually lower YOY. The other inflation report was the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures pricing trends farther up the supply chain, at the manufacturing level. Here, we also saw a modest increase in the rate of inflation. The PPI final demand annual rate through June was 2.6%, compared to 2.2% in May, and the prices for processed goods for intermediate demand outright declined. The June 2022 CPI rate marked the peak reading for the index that cycle, and we expect pricing pressures to continue to ease as the housing market cools, supplies of new vehicles are replenished, and the price of oil stays below $90 per barrel. The Fed lifted the feds fund rate from 0.0% to above 5.25% over the past 24 months, and the rate hikes appear to be reducing inflationary pressures. We still look for the U.S. central bank to be lowering rates in 2H24 and 1H25 as concern shifts more toward economic growth.

Founded in 2009, Block provides payment services to merchants, along with related services. The company also launched Cash App, a person-to-person payment network. In 2023, Square's payment volume was a little over $200 million.