Nu Holdings, the parent of Brazilian digital bank Nubank, fell sharply after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidential runoff. The stock now sits roughly 36% below its January 2026 high. Motley Fool argues the business remains strong and the shares look cheap.
Nu Holdings fell sharply on October 26, 2026, one day after Lula won Brazil's presidential runoff. The slide leaves the stock roughly 36% below its January 2026 high of $18.76.
Election result reverses a pre-vote rally
Lula took the October 25 runoff with 51.8% of the vote, while Flávio Bolsonaro finished with 48.2%. Investors had priced in a more favorable result for Bolsonaro, and that bet had pushed Nu's stock higher on hopes for lower interest rates and lighter regulation.
When the results came in, that optimism unwound. Estimates of Nu's single-day decline range from approximately 17% to 25%, with the stock opening near $15.16 and closing around $12.59. The Bovespa, Brazil's benchmark index, dropped somewhere in the range of 13% to 15%, and the Brazilian real fell more than 10% intraday against the US dollar.
Brazil concentration explains the repricing
As of Q2 2026, Nu counted 139 million customers worldwide, 118 million of them in Brazil. Crypto Briefing says a bank's profits are tightly linked to local interest rates and fiscal policy, so lenders with heavy domestic exposure get repriced first.
The operating numbers had been strong going into the vote. In Q2 2026, Nu reported $5.9 billion in gross revenue and $1.06 billion in net income, with a return on equity of 33%.
Motley Fool sees a buying opportunity
Motley Fool takes a bullish view. It notes that early delinquencies improved from 5% to 4.8% in the second quarter, and net interest margin improved to 12.4%.
The outlet also argues that nothing actually changed in Brazil, because Lula has been president since 2023 and has just been reelected. At the current price, it says Nu trades at less than 11 times forward 1-year earnings.
Nu's Q3 2026 earnings are expected around November 12, giving investors a first look at whether operating momentum held through the election period.
Sources: Crypto Briefing, Fool
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