INSTANT VIEW: American Express quarterly earnings miss forecast

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Express Co (AXP.N) a credit card issuer and processing network, on Monday posted a decline in second quarter results, as it set aside more money to cover credit losses.

The fourth-largest U.S. credit card issuer said second quarter earnings were $653 million, or 56 cents a share, compared with $1.057 billion, or 88 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

American Express shares were down 12.5 percent in extended trading after the market closed.

The following is reaction from industry analysts and investors:

RICHARD MORONEY, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, HORIZON INVESTMENT SERVICES LLC, HAMMOND, INDIANA

"American Express is a bellwether when it comes to the consumer economy, given its size and the amount of spending on its cards.

"It has expanded in recent years beyond higher-end clientele. Like many financial companies that did this at the end of the credit cycle, it got burned."

STEPHEN MASSOCCA, CO-CHIEF EXECUTIVE, PACIFIC GROWTH EQUITIES, SAN FRANCISCO

"It's a little surprising a lot of these financial companies had reported better-than-expected earnings. None of them have been stellar, but relative to expectations they've been ok. But American Express had moved up from the high 30s to the low 40s based on the good news on the other companies, and now they've had weak results.

"This is a non-mortgage related company, so it hadn't got caught up in the subprime stuff. That means there's some room to the downside here presumably.

"We had such a dramatic move up in a lot of these financials in the past few sessions, so I think the market will look at this negatively and I think this should make the market move lower tomorrow."

PAUL HICKEY, CO-FOUNDER OF BESPOKE INVESTMENT GROUP LLC IN MAMARONECK, N.Y.

"What's getting people nervous is seeing this downturn affect their top super prime customers. While it is not surprising that no one is insulated from the crisis, everyone is really concentrating on how even the best of the best aren't doing so hot. It makes people a little weary."

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan, Jonathan Stempel and Kristina Cooke in New York)