budget. So, no, I\’m not thinking cautiously. I think the consumer is in a good spot.\”Squeri also highlighted that travel and entertainment spending is rebounding and that the company is seeing strong payment volume growth in the US and internationally.He added that the company is well-positioned for a potential increase in interest rates, as American Express has a large deposit base and a strong lending business.Squeri also noted that the company is continuing to invest in digital capabilities to improve the customer experience.Fri, July 19, 2024 at 7:45 AM EDTUS stocks set to open lower as global IT outage weighsUS stocks were set to open lower on Friday as more details emerged about a global IT outage that impacted a variety of sectors including airlines, banks, and hospitals.The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) were both indicated to open down around 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was set to open down around 0.4%.Investors are also digesting comments from former President Donald Trump, who said in his nomination speech that he would \”end the electric vehicle mandate on day one.\”His comments come as the market considers the potential impact of a potential Trump presidency on assets, known as the \”Trump trade.\”Next week, investors will be closely watching earnings reports from companies including Coca-Cola (KO), UPS (UPS), and Tesla (TSLA).Fri, July 19, 2024 at 7:00 AM EDTGlobal IT outage grounds flights, hits banks and media companiesA global IT outage on Friday grounded flights and impacted banks, telecoms, and media companies worldwide.The outage was caused by a botched update that affected Microsoft-based systems, according to CrowdStrike (CRWD), a cybersecurity company. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said a fix was in place for the glitch.CrowdStrike shares plunged as much as 20% following the outage but pared losses to 11%. Shares of Microsoft (MSFT), which was working on problems with its Azure cloud services, were down less than 1%.The outage impacted a wide range of entities including airlines, banks, hospitals, and media companies. It comes as the market continues to grapple with the implications of a potential Trump presidency and the ongoing rotation out of tech stocks.