Fiserv’s Small Business Index Rises to 149 as Essential Spending Outpaces Discretionary Amid $680M Trade Volume Rank 148th

Fiserv (FI) rose 0.61% on August 4, 2025, with a trading volume of $0.68 billion, ranking 148th in market activity. The company’s Small Business Index climbed to 149, reflecting a one-point increase from the previous month. Year-over-year sales growth of 3.6% and transaction growth of 3.0% highlight sustained consumer spending resilience, driven by higher average ticket sizes (+0.7%) and a 1.0% monthly sales increase, reversing a three-month decline.

Key trends include a shift toward essential spending, with Essentials sectors growing 6.1% year-over-year and 1.5% month-over-month, outpacing Discretionary sales. Restaurant sales fell 0.9% in July compared to June, signaling tighter consumer budgets, though they remain up 1.8% annually. Ambulatory Health Care and Wholesale sectors showed momentum, with gains of 3.2% and 1.4–2.0%, respectively, following a slower spring.

The data underscores Fiserv’s role in tracking small business activity through its transaction-based index, which aggregates data from 2 million U.S. businesses. While foot traffic remained flat, the rise in average ticket sizes suggests inflationary pressures are influencing spending patterns. The index’s focus on essentials and essential services positions Fiserv to benefit from sustained demand in core consumer categories.

The strategy of purchasing the top 500 stocks by daily trading volume and holding them for one day delivered a 166.71% return from 2022 to the present, outperforming the benchmark by 137.53%. This highlights the impact of liquidity concentration in volatile markets, where high-volume stocks experience amplified price movements due to institutional and algorithmic trading activity.