NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 15:50 ET — Regular session
Home Depot shares were down about 0.3% at $345.33 in late-afternoon New York trading on Wednesday, underperforming earlier highs as the broader market eased into the final session of 2025. The stock traded between $344.87 and $346.69; rival Lowe’s was down about 0.5% and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF fell about 0.5%.
The muted move still matters for a rate-sensitive corner of retail. Home-improvement spending tends to follow housing turnover and financing conditions, and investors are positioning for how quickly borrowing costs ease in early 2026.
Fresh U.S. data on Wednesday showed initial jobless claims fell to 199,000 for the week ended Dec. 27, well below economists’ forecasts for 220,000, keeping attention on the Federal Reserve’s next steps. The Fed cut its benchmark overnight rate this month to a 3.50%-3.75% range, and the Labor Department is due to publish December employment figures on Jan. 9.
Trading remained thin in the holiday-shortened week, with U.S. markets shut on Thursday for New Year’s Day. “it’s perfectly fine in any bull market to have moments of cost,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity. Reuters
Home Depot had no major corporate announcement on Wednesday, leaving the stock to move largely with the tape. Investors, however, have been scanning for any signals on discretionary demand as the market turns the calendar.
A securities filing on Tuesday showed executive vice president and general counsel Teresa Wynn Roseborough sold 2,872 Home Depot shares on Dec. 26 at weighted average prices around $348.5 a share, for proceeds of about $1.0 million. She reported holding about 13,196 shares after the sale; Form 4 filings disclose insider trades to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Insider sales are common and can reflect personal financial planning rather than a view on the business. In thin markets, though, even routine filings can draw extra attention.
Earlier this month, the Atlanta-based retailer reaffirmed its fiscal 2025 guidance and issued a preliminary outlook for fiscal 2026, calling for comparable sales — a measure of sales at stores open at least a year — to be roughly flat to up 2%. It also said it expects diluted earnings per share, a standard profitability metric, to rise by about flat to 4% next year.
The outlook keeps the focus on whether housing-related projects rebound and whether customers shift from small repairs back to bigger remodels. Investors have also been watching Home Depot’s push to “win the pro,” meaning grow sales to professional contractors who tend to buy more consistently than do-it-yourself shoppers.
The next major scheduled company checkpoint is February earnings, when Home Depot is expected to update guidance and provide fresh reads on demand and margins. In the meantime, traders in consumer and housing-linked names are likely to take cues from January’s run of economic data.
Investing.com’s earnings calendar lists Home Depot’s next results date as Feb. 24, 2026. That report will be watched for updates on comparable sales trends, costs and inventory ahead of the key spring selling season.
For now, HD was hovering near $345 in the final stretch of the regular session as investors closed the books on the year. The next directional push may hinge less on retailer-specific headlines and more on whether early-2026 data supports additional Fed rate cuts.
