American Express (AXP 1.94%) stock rallied in late-session action on Friday to close the day higher in price. While there was no direct news sending the share price up, general optimism on stocks and the economy helped lift Amex into positive territory. It did better on the day than the S&P 500 index, which essentially traded sideways.
An emerging rival?
Credit card companies were a bit in the spotlight that day, thanks to an article in The Wall Street Journal about Amex's rival, ambitious financial services company Capital One Financial.
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In the piece, the financial newspaper of record detailed Capital One's work in establishing itself as a company that now owns and operates a proprietary network (thanks to the recent closing of its Discover Financial Services acquisition).
This makes it a peer of Amex, which, as the premier "closed loop" card company, is the well-established leader in the segment -- "open-loop" companies, namely Mastercard and Visa, only process the transactions on their branded cards and do not operate as issuers like Amex.
The Journal wrote that Capital One has assertively pushed into the high-spender segment that has been so well serviced by Amex. The upstart also offers a range of perks to its cardholders, making its credit products more "sticky" and intensifying the competition to woo affluent users.
There's nothing like cachet
Amex's share price uptick on Friday indicates that, at least to some degree, the market isn't overly worried about Capital One lapping the incumbent anytime soon. One of the great advantages Amex has is cachet -- it's the credit card for wealthy individuals who don't mind spending their scratch lavishly.
This is tough for a competitor to overtake, no matter how many perks and prizes it offers. So, I don't think AmEx's business is at serious risk from Capital One, at least not yet.
