The Stock Masters'  Instablog

American Express (NYSE:AXP) passed the Stress Test and gets a gold star, better yet gets to keep its gold card.  They don't need any new capital and the company is making moves to repay their TARP funds.  There's no need to issue more stock or jack with shareholders value, its game on to 'charge it' at $26 a share.American Express became a bank last November as bond markets closed down and lenders outside the banking system began looking to fund themselves with deposits. Being a bank also helped American Express win access to capital from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

"Since then, financial markets have become more stable, and American Express has made substantial progress in adapting to a very difficult economic environment," the company said in a statement.

The stress test estimated American Express had enough resources to remain profitable, even in a worst case scenario of 20 percent of credit card losses over 2009 and 2010.

American Express Company (AXP) has a $30.4 Billion Market Cap,10.1 billion in tier-1 capital and total estimates losses in a more adverse scenario are $11.2 billion.  Total Risk Weighted Assets were $104.4 billion.

AXP shares jumped 3% after-hours yesterday and today are up 7% and climbing, this is one to add your watch list Masters.