Why is the Zip share price behaving so strangely on the ASX today?

Zip shares have been wild on Thursday. What's going on?

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It's been a fairly lacklustre day of trading thus far this Thursday for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). At the time of writing, the ASX 200 has lost 0.29% and is back to around 7,110 points. But it's a different, and far stranger, story when it comes to the Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP) share price.

Zip shares… well, they just don't seem to know what to do today. The Zip share price initially opened in the red this morning at $1.06, before climbing and then dropping briefly into negative territory. Then, the company seemed to jump on a rocket, rapidly climbing as high as $1.144 a share (up more than 4%).

But investors have since gotten cold feet again, and sent Zip shares back down. At present, the ASX buy now, pay later (BNPL) share is back in the red, having recorded a loss of 0.93% at present to $1.06 a share.

So what on earth is going on here?

What's going on with the Zip share price today?

Well, the first thing to note is that there hasn't been any news out of Zip itself today.

However, we have heard from Zip's fellow BNPL share Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) today.

As we covered this morning, Sezzle has come out with a business update today. The company reported that its underlying merchant sales had lifted 9.5% over the previous month to US$141.2 million.

Total income is also up 4% to US$10.2 million. Investors have clearly liked what they've seen from Sezzle today, going off of the company's share price performance. Sezzle shares are currently up a pleasing 13.8% at 82 cents a share. But the company rose as high as 93 cents earlier this morning, a rise worth a whopping 27.8% or so.

So it could be the stunning rise (and cool-off) of Zip's BNPL peer Sezzle that could provide an explanation of the wild swings we have seen in Zip shares today.

Even so, Zip shares remain down a painful 75% in 2022 thus far.

At the current Zip share price, this ASX 200 BNPL share has a market capitalisation of $730 million.

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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