NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 15:31 ET — Regular session
Key points:
- American Express shares down 0.3% at $374.12 in late afternoon trading, with Visa and Mastercard also edging lower.
- Federal Reserve minutes outlined reserve-management bond buying and stressed it was not a change in monetary policy.
- Next catalysts include the Fed’s Jan. 27-28 meeting and American Express earnings on Jan. 30.
American Express Co (AXP) shares fell 0.3% to $374.12 in late afternoon trading on Tuesday, after moving between $373 and $377 in the session. Visa and Mastercard were also down about 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
The move matters because American Express is one of the higher-priced components of the Dow, a price-weighted index that gives bigger sway to costlier stocks. With year-end liquidity thin, small swings can ripple through benchmarks and sector ETFs more quickly.
Investors are also treating AXP as a read-through on rate expectations and consumer credit into 2026, because funding costs and loan losses can shift the earnings outlook for card lenders fast. That puts Fed communication and market plumbing in focus, even on a quiet tape.
U.S. stocks were muted in choppy trade, with technology and financial shares slipping and both Goldman Sachs and American Express weighing on the Dow, Reuters reported. “The valuation gap is so wide, it absolutely is justified to see repositioning,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. Investors are also looking to the Fed’s Jan. 27-28 meeting, where traders currently expect policy to hold steady, the report said. 1
Minutes from the Fed’s Dec. 9-10 meeting showed officials backed starting purchases of short-dated government bonds to keep reserves in what they described as an “ample” range. The central bank called the operations reserve management purchases — buying Treasury bills, short-term U.S. government debt — and said they were designed to keep markets functioning smoothly, not to signal a shift in monetary policy. Chair Jerome Powell used similar language after the Fed cut its policy rate by a quarter of a percentage point earlier this month; a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. 2
For American Express, rates matter through the cost of funding and the pace of consumer borrowing, while liquidity conditions shape credit availability across the system. Investors also watch whether thin volume distorts day-to-day price signals in widely held financial names.
American Express has said it will report fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results and host an earnings call on Jan. 30 at 8:30 a.m. ET. The company expects to post results and presentation materials around 7:00 a.m. ET ahead of the call. 3
That report will be parsed for trends in cardmember spending and fee income, along with credit indicators such as delinquencies and charge-offs. Any change in tone around 2026 demand and credit performance could reprice the stock quickly.
In the near term, traders are watching whether AXP can stabilize above the day’s low into the close. A decisive break can trigger program trades — automated orders that can amplify moves when liquidity is light.
Payments stocks have been used as a gauge of consumer activity, and the group can react quickly to shifts in macro data or Fed messaging. With the calendar turning, any late move in Treasury yields or financial-sector sentiment is likely to keep AXP on traders’ screens.
For now, the afternoon dip looked more tied to sector and rate sentiment than to a fresh company catalyst. That leaves investors waiting for January’s earnings update for a clearer signal on spending and credit into the new year.
