Credit-Card Settlement May Be Imminent
Within the next 24 hours, a settlement may be announced in the merchants' class action lawsuit (the "Brooklyn case") against MasterCard (MA) and Visa (V). Perhaps in anticipation of an end to the related uncertainty, shares of the two card networks were up strongly Thursday amid negative to flattish trading. That, moreover, comes on the heels of these shares climbing by 60% to 70% since Washington's "swipe-fee" fever broke last spring. By contrast, card issuers American Express (AXP), Discover (DFS) and Capital One (COF) were all slightly down.
As a result, I'd say that investors may have already broken the code. Prospects are not good for the merchants' 2010-to-2011 legislative assault against debit interchange to spread to credit cards, either. So those who loved what was "in the cards" Thursday should probably stay the course going forward....705 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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