Bernstein believes that U.S. credit card spending remained strong overall ahead of bank earnings reports. Bank reports showed that growth slowed by only about 0.1-0.2 percentage points compared to the second quarter, lower than market expectations of a 0.5-1 percentage point slowdown for Visa and Mastercard; debit card spending remained largely stable.
The rise in gasoline prices has two effects: it may squeeze other consumption, but it will also increase the nominal spending recorded on payment networks. U.S. gasoline prices rose by more than 30% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. The report estimates that gasoline accounts for about 4% of the two companies' U.S. credit card spending.
