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. 1
- Investors are looking ahead to Fed minutes and jobless claims, while McDonald’s next results are expected in early February. 1
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. 1
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. 2
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%. 1
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. 1
“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. 1
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. 3
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. 3
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. 1
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. 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.
