The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price is lagging behind its peers on Thursday, up just 0.25% to $122.24.
Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) shares are currently topping the BNPL leaderboard, up 3.01% to $7.18 following its new agreement with US-tech behemoth Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).
Players on the small end of town are also eking out gains ahead of the Afterpay share price.
Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT), Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) and Laybuy Holdings Ltd (ASX: LBY) are bouncing slightly higher after yesterday's tech-heavy selloff, up 1.16%, 0.75% and 0.97% respectively.
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Why the Afterpay share price is flat today
The US market is likely to blame for the underperformance of Afterpay shares.
Tech shares on Wall Street struggled to bounce back on Wednesday night with the Nasdaq Composite down 0.24% compared to the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average which finished the session up 0.16% and 0.26% respectively.
US-listed BNPL rival Affirm Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: AFRM) opened 4.75% higher but faded towards market close, down 1.53% by the closing bell.
More importantly, the Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) share price tumbled 2.74% to a 2-month low of US$236.04.
The Afterpay share price has closely tracked the performance of Square Inc ever since the US payments company came forth with a $39 billion all-scrip takeover offer.
On the record date of Square's takeover offer, Afterpay shareholders can expect to receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.375 Square shares for each Afterpay share they own.
After last night's performance and converting the figures back into Australian dollars, this would theoretically value the Afterpay share price at $123.09.
By comparison, the Square share price closed at $242.70 on Tuesday night which implies a theoretical value of $125.99.
With the transaction expected to close in the first quarter of calendar year 2022, the Square share price will likely continue to play a major role in how Afterpay shares perform.
