Why American Express Stock Plummeted on Friday

2026-02-27 19:25:25 ET

Deep personnel cuts at a peer financial services company raised concerns that American Express (NYSE: AXP) was vulnerable to disruption. Concerned investors sold out of the veteran credit card company aggressively, and as a result its stock lost almost 8% of its value across the day.

That peer was a digital payments specialist (and, lately, institutional cryptocurrency enthusiast) at Block. Simultaneously with the unveiling of its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings report, the company announced it was laying off more than 4,000 employees, roughly 40% of its current workforce.

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