Human cloud, ride-sharing firm Uber Technologies Inc. on Thursday evening priced its stock at $45 per share, the low end of the $44.00-to-$50.00 range predicted in its IPO prospectus filed last month with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The stock began trading this morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “UBER.” TechCrunch reported the stock price would raise $8.1 billion; however, the shares opened at $42, down from the IPO price.

Uber CFO Nelson Chai told CNBC that “this was a tough day” on the market in an interview after the stock began trading. Asked about whether executives considered delaying the IPO as a result of the conditions, Chai said, “I don’t think that we're smart enough to try to judge the market ... We weren’t optimizing to have the best opening price or the opening day. We’re really looking for how the stock continues to trade over time and that's what we're building for.”

The Uber stock market debut comes amid a difficult week. The company updated investors on independent contractor misclassification claims against the company — including up to $170 million for individual drivers claiming misclassification in arbitration — as well as other challenges in a filing yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That filing came the day after drivers in several countries worked to organize a strike over pay.

Staffing Industry Analysts ranks Uber as the largest B2C human cloud platform, followed by Beijing-based Didi Chuxing and Lyft. Human cloud/ride-sharing firm Lyft began trading its stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in March.  

Shares in Lyft fell below their IPO price on their second day of trading and have continued to tumble since, CNN reported today. The stock is now down about 25% from the IPO price.