Shares of American Express (AXP) closed at $337.50 on Friday, marking a 1.6% decline for the session. The stock has now retreated approximately 4.7% over the past two trading days, underperforming a relatively steady broader market.
Payment Sector Under Pressure
The weakness was not isolated to AmEx. Major payment network stocks also faced selling pressure, with Visa (V) dropping over 3% and Mastercard (MA) shedding 1.7% on Friday. This weighed on the card-and-payments sector, even as major market indexes held steady.
American Express operates differently from its pure-play network peers. As a closed-loop system, it both issues cards and processes transactions, making its performance more directly tied to cardmember spending trends and credit quality than Visa or Mastercard.
Executive Transaction and Market Context
A regulatory filing disclosed that Howard Grosfield, Group President of U.S. Consumer Services at American Express, sold 8,134 shares on February 12 at an average price of $346.73 per share. Following the transaction, he retains direct ownership of over 9,433 shares.
The sell-off in financial stocks occurred despite a market backdrop supported by a softer January inflation reading, which fueled renewed speculation about potential Federal Reserve rate cuts later this year.
Looking Ahead: Fed Minutes and Earnings
U.S. markets are closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday. Investor attention will quickly turn to the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's late-January meeting, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Traders will scrutinize the details for clues on the central bank's policy path.
American Express is not scheduled to report its first-quarter results until April 24. Investors will be monitoring for updates on consumer spending patterns and management's confidence in the company's 2026 financial targets, which call for earnings per share between $17.30 and $17.90 and revenue growth of 9% to 10%.
