Visa and Mastercard shares surged on August 24, with Visa approaching record closing highs near $380-$381 and Mastercard climbing more than 3% toward $600. Visa's stock has gained 9% year to date to $381.13, outperforming Mastercard and American Express, while Wolfe Research raised its price target for Visa to $460, implying a 20.29% upside. Visa's fiscal third quarter revenue rose 14% year over year to $11.6 billion, and adjusted earnings per share reached $3.32, above the $3.23 consensus estimate. Total payments volume exceeded $4 trillion for the first time, increasing 10% in constant-currency terms, while processed transactions grew at the same rate. Cross-border volume rose 13% at Visa and 12% at Mastercard, with both figures exceeding expectations. Travel linked to the World Cup helped drive international spending. Bank of America's card spending tracker showed U.S. card spending up 5.0% year over year in July 2026, down from 6.3% in June but still considered healthy. Credit card debt reached $1.26 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, near previous peaks, while consumers showed greater selectivity despite no significant weakness in overall retail sales. Visa and Mastercard generally earn transaction fees whether customers repay balances immediately or carry debt, leaving credit risk with issuing banks. Institutional buyers supported the rally based on the view that the companies form duopoly infrastructure for the digitization of global payments. Risks include weaker consumer spending, interchange-fee regulation, alternative payment rails such as FedNow and UPI, and stablecoin-based payment networks. Visa has experimented with stablecoin settlement on Ethereum and Solana, while Mastercard has pursued similar pilots.