NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 21:56 ET — Market closed
- McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) closed down 0.7% at $308.53.
- U.S. stocks ended lower in quiet, holiday-thinned trading, led by a pullback in big tech.
- Investors are looking ahead to Fed minutes and jobless claims, while McDonald’s next results are expected in early February.
McDonald’s shares ended down 0.7% at $308.53 on Monday, extending a soft start to the final week of the year for the Dow component.
The decline matters now because year-end positioning and thin liquidity can amplify routine moves in large, widely held names, even without fresh company-specific news.
Markets are also heading into a holiday-shortened stretch, with just two U.S. trading days left before the year ends and markets closed Thursday for New Year’s Day.
Wall Street’s main indexes finished lower, with heavyweight tech and AI-linked stocks retreating from last week’s gains. The Dow fell 0.51%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.35% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.50%.
Some investors had been looking for a “Santa Claus rally” — a seasonal pattern in which the S&P 500 tends to rise in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January — but trading remained uneven. Reuters
“This is not the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” said Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust. Reuters
Restaurant peers were mixed on the session. Yum Brands fell 0.6% and Restaurant Brands International slid 1.3%, while Starbucks rose 0.6%.
McDonald’s traded between $308.24 and $311.87 after opening at $310.46, with about 2.15 million shares changing hands.
The stock is below its 52-week high of $326.32 and above its 52-week low of $276.53, data on Investing.com showed.
Investing.com put the average 12-month price target at about $331, pointing to limited upside from Monday’s close if the broader market stays range-bound into year-end.
Before the next session, investors will focus on minutes from the Federal Reserve’s previous meeting and weekly jobless claims in what has been an otherwise data-light week.
For McDonald’s, the next major catalyst is quarterly results. The company has not confirmed a date; market calendars place the next report in early February, with MarketBeat estimating Feb. 9 and Investing.com listing Feb. 4.
Traders will be watching for updates on traffic and pricing as consumers remain price-sensitive, along with any commentary on promotions and cost pressures heading into 2026.
Technically, Monday’s low near $308 is an immediate level to watch; a move back above the $312 area would put the recent highs back on traders’ screens.
