NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 15:05 ET — Regular session
- Coca-Cola shares rose about 0.5% in afternoon trading, outperforming a softer broader market.
- Consumer staples held up better than tech-led indexes as trading stayed light into year-end.
- Investors are looking to early-2026 earnings and guidance, plus this week’s Fed minutes and jobless claims.
Shares of The Coca-Cola Company (KO) rose 0.5% to $70.19 in mid-afternoon trading on Monday, after moving between $69.86 and $70.41. The S&P 500 ETF was down about 0.3% at the same time.
The relative strength matters now because Wall Street is entering the final, holiday-thinned stretch of 2025 with major indexes pulling back from last week’s record highs. When trading turns choppy and volumes dry up, investors often lean into defensive, dividend-paying names.
Coca-Cola also sits at the intersection of that “defensive” trade and a more fundamental question for 2026: whether demand stays steady as inflation cools and pricing power normalizes across consumer staples.
The broader market tone was set by declines in heavyweight technology stocks. “This is not the beginning of the end of the tech dominance,” said Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust, in a Reuters interview on Monday. 1
Within beverages, Coca-Cola’s move was broadly in line with peers. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund edged higher, while PepsiCo and Keurig Dr Pepper also traded modestly up.
A research note published Monday by Zacks Investment Research pointed to Coca-Cola’s “organic” momentum — growth that strips out currency swings and big deal-related changes — and said the company had gained value share for an 18th straight quarter. The note also flagged valuation, putting Coca-Cola at about 21.7 times forward earnings versus an industry multiple around 18.2, and said Zacks’ consensus estimates imply earnings growth of 3.5% in 2025 and 8% in 2026. 2
That mix helps explain why the stock can grind higher on risk-off days but still draw debate on upside: investors are paying a premium for predictability.
Coca-Cola’s last earnings update underscored the operating levers bulls point to. In its third-quarter report, the company said net revenues rose 5% to $12.5 billion and organic revenues rose 6%, with “price/mix” — a measure combining price changes and shifts toward higher-priced products, packages and channels — up 6%. Coca-Cola also said it would provide full-year 2026 guidance when it reports fourth-quarter earnings. 3
The timing of that next report is the next clear catalyst for KO traders. Nasdaq’s earnings calendar currently estimates Coca-Cola will report around Feb. 10, 2026, though it notes the date is algorithm-derived and not company-confirmed. 4
On the macro calendar, investors are also tracking Tuesday’s release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting and Wednesday’s weekly jobless-claims report, with markets closed Thursday for New Year’s Day. 5
Housing data added another data point to the rates narrative on Monday, with U.S. pending home sales rising 3.3% in November — above forecasts — as the National Association of Realtors pointed to improving affordability. That kind of “soft-landing” signal can support defensive consumer names, but it also keeps attention on what the Fed does next. 6
For Coca-Cola, the immediate watch is whether the stock holds its late-year floor near $70 while investors reposition into 2026 — and whether upcoming guidance supports paying up for stability in a market still dominated by growth narratives.
