NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 16:35 ET — After-hours
- Microsoft closed down about 0.1% on Monday, with the stock hovering near flat after the bell.
- Wall Street slipped in light holiday trading, with AI-linked tech among the biggest drags.
- Traders are watching Fed minutes on Tuesday and jobless claims on Wednesday ahead of the New Year’s Day market holiday.
Microsoft Corp shares ended Monday down about 0.1% at $487.11, after trading between $484.18 and $488.35 in the regular session. The stock was down about 0.1% in after-hours trading, the period after the 4 p.m. ET market close.
The muted move matters because Microsoft is one of the biggest weights in U.S. equity indexes, and late-December liquidity is thin as 2025 winds down. In that backdrop, small shifts in mega-cap technology can sway benchmarks and amplify day-to-day moves.
U.S. stocks slipped broadly on Monday, with the S&P 500 down 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite off 0.5%, as investor enthusiasm around artificial intelligence cooled amid questions about the eventual payoff from heavy spending. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.11%, while U.S. crude oil rose 2.4% to $58.08 a barrel, lifting energy stocks even as tech lagged.
With no fresh Microsoft filings or major company announcements moving the tape, attention stayed on the debate over how much of the AI story is already priced in. “Companies around the ecosphere of OpenAI have started to pull back relative to the ecosphere around Google,” Matt Stucky, chief portfolio manager for equities at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management, told MarketWatch. MarketWatch
The same question has been hanging over the sector since the AI buildout accelerated: what returns will justify the spending. In October, Microsoft reported record capital spending of nearly $35 billion and said it expected higher spending for the year, a sign of how aggressively it is building data centers and other infrastructure to support AI services.
Microsoft’s late-day steadiness also mirrored a mixed picture across big tech after the bell. Nvidia fell 1.2%, while Amazon.com slipped 0.2%; Apple was up 0.1% and Alphabet was little changed. Microsoft’s market value stood at about $3.85 trillion.
The next macro test arrives Tuesday, when the Federal Reserve is due to publish minutes from its December policy meeting. The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s rate-setting panel, is scheduled to release the minutes at 2 p.m. ET.
Weekly U.S. jobless claims follow on Wednesday, with the St. Louis Fed’s FRED database listing December 31 as the next release date for initial claims. Traders often treat labor data as a direct input to rate expectations, which can ripple quickly into growth-stock valuations.
Markets are also navigating another holiday-shortened week. The NYSE holiday calendar lists Thursday, January 1, 2026 as New Year’s Day, when U.S. equity markets will be closed.
In fixed income, SIFMA — the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which sets holiday trading recommendations for U.S. bond markets — calls for an early close at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, December 31.
For Microsoft, that leaves two more sessions where positioning and rate-sensitive risk appetite may matter more than company-specific news. Investors continue to focus on cloud demand, margin trends and the pace of AI infrastructure spending across the sector.
Microsoft has not announced the date for its next earnings release, and its investor FAQ says the next release “will be announced soon,” listing fiscal second-quarter results as “TBA.” microsoft.com
