By Pritam Biswas and Manya Saini Dec 10 (Reuters) – Credit card giant American Express' network saw a 9% growth in U.S. retail consumer spending around the key Thanksgiving holiday week, CEO Stephen Squeri said on Wednesday. For payments firms, the year-end weeks are crucial, bringing a predictable surge in shopping and travel. Holiday promotions, gift-buying trends, and trips typically drive transaction volumes higher, which directly boost revenue growth. Concerns that the season might be softer, after travel was hit by the longest U.S. government shutdown and broader economic uncertainty, were eased by American Express' spending figures. "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. Shares of American Express closed 3.2% higher, taking year-to-date gains to about 26.5%. The stock outperformed rivals Visa, Mastercard, and the broader 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. AmEx 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. In October, the credit card giant raised the lower end of its 2025 profit and revenue forecasts 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 and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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