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American Express to take about $440 mln in charges
Thu Jan 10, 4:59 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Credit card company American Express Co (AXP.N) said on Thursday that a slowdown in cardholder spending and rising delinquencies would lead to a quarterly pretax charge of about $440 million.
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American Express also said it is seeing signs of a weaker U.S. economy and adopting a cautious view for 2008, expecting reported earnings per share growing in the range of 4 percent to 6 percent. Earlier, Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) slashed its profit forecast on loan losses.

American Express forecast earnings from continuing operations in the range of 70 cents to 72 cents per share for the fourth quarter. That compared to analysts' expectations of 87 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. Quarterly earnings a year ago were 73 cents per share.

Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault said that while cardmember spending was relatively strong, "We did see some negative credit trends among U.S. consumers during December, particularly in California, Florida and other parts of the country most affected by the housing downturn."

For the 2007 year, the company sees earnings from continuing operations in the range of $3.38 to $3.40, a 16 percent increase from last year, American Express said.

Analysts expected $3.53 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

In addition, the company expects to incur pretax costs of around $685 million related to an evaluation of certain enhancements.

(Reporting by Michael Flaherty;