American Express Sees 9% Holiday Spending Jump As Premium Customers Drive Growth

(RTTNews) - During a Goldman Sachs conference on Wednesday, American Express CEO Stephen Squeri announced that the company saw a 9 percent rise in U.S. retail consumer spending on its network from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Even more impressive, platinum cardholders increased their spending by 13 percent.

The holiday season is crucial for payment companies, as shopping and travel typically drive up the number of transactions. However, fears of a weaker season due to the recent U.S. government shutdown and overall economic uncertainty were somewhat alleviated by AmEx's latest performance.

In the afternoon trading session, American Express shares climbed 2.5 percent and have surged about 26 percent this year, outperforming competitors like Visa and Mastercard, as well as the broader market.

Spending growth on AmEx's network was also ahead of overall trends; Adobe Analytics reported a 7.7 percent increase in online spending during Cyber Week.

AmEx is still thriving thanks to its wealthy clientele, with high-income consumers continuing to travel and splurge on big purchases, even as other parts of the payments sector face challenges.

In October, the company raised the lower end of its profit and revenue guidance for 2025 after surpassing third-quarter expectations.

Squeri also noted that early trends for the fourth quarter appear to be consistent with the strong results seen earlier this year.