American Express Says Late Payments Rising Faster Than Expected

``Business conditions continue to weaken in the U.S. and so far this month we have seen credit indicators deteriorate beyond our expectations...''

American Express and rivals Capital One Financial Corp. and Discover Financial Services have fallen more than 30 percent in the past 12 months in New York trading as the housing slump hurts consumers' ability to repay debt of all kinds. New York-based American Express adopted a ``cautious view'' for the year in January after cardholder spending slowed and delinquencies rose in December.

``If you look at the employment situation, clearly that's deteriorated, and consumer confidence is down as well,'' said Sanjay Sakhrani, an analyst with KBW Inc. in New York who has a ``market perform'' rating on the stock. ``Both play a key role in the credit-card industry.''