US consumer spending on AmEx cards rose 9% over Thanksgiving holiday week, CEO says

By Pritam Biswas and Manya Saini

Dec 10 (Reuters) - American Express' AXP.N network recorded 9% growth in U.S. retail consumer spending around the key Thanksgiving holiday week, the credit card giant's CEO Stephen Squeri said on Wednesday.

For payments firms, the final weeks of the year are critical as they bring a predictable rise in shopping and travel activity. Promotions, gift buying and holiday trips usually push transaction volumes higher, which feeds directly into revenue growth.

Concerns over whether this season would be softer because travel was hit by the longest U.S. government shutdown and broader economic uncertainty were eased by the latest data.

"The week before Thanksgiving to up to Cyber Monday, we saw 9% growth in U.S. consumer retail spending, and 13% growth in Platinum retail U.S. consumer platinum spending, as well," Squeri said at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference in New York.

American Express shares were last up 2.5% in afternoon trading. The stock has gained about 26% so far this year, outperforming rivals Visa V.N and Mastercard MA.N and the broader equity market.

Retail spending growth on AmEx's network for the key holiday period has also run ahead of estimates for broader market spending.

According to an Adobe Analytics report, overall online spending rose 7.7% during the so-called Cyber Week - the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.

American Express customers tend to be more premium and affluent than the wider market. Higher-income consumers are still planning holidays and buying big-ticket discretionary items, which has helped shield it from a broader slowdown in the payments sector.

The credit card giant raised the lower end of its 2025 profit and revenue forecasts in October after sailing past Wall Street expectations for third-quarter results.

"The fourth quarter so far, looks pretty much exactly like the third quarter," Squeri said. "We're pretty happy about that."

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

((Manya.Saini@thomsonreuters.com; X: manya__saini;))