NEW YORK, Jan 9, 2026, 19:18 EST — After-hours
- Visa shares fell 0.7% on Friday, lagging a record Wall Street close.
- A shareholder filing urged a “for” vote on a proposal tied to AI-driven deepfake exploitation risks.
- Traders next eye U.S. inflation data and the start of earnings season for clues on consumer spending.
Visa Inc shares slipped in after-hours trading on Friday, closing down 0.7% at $349.77. Mastercard fell 0.8% and American Express dropped 1.9% in the same session.
The move came even as the S&P 500 logged a record close after a mixed U.S. jobs report kept rate-cut hopes alive. U.S. payrolls rose by 50,000 in December and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.4%, a print that helped support expectations for easing later this year — measured in “basis points,” or hundredths of a percentage point. (Reuters)
Why it matters now: the market’s focus is turning to Tuesday’s U.S. Consumer Price Index and the first wave of big-bank earnings, which investors often use as a quick read on credit and household demand. “It just seems a little too quiet,” Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Investment Management, said. (Reuters)
Visa is also moving deeper into the annual meeting season. Bowyer Research filed an exempt solicitation on Friday urging shareholders to vote for a proposal that would ask Visa to report on how it manages risks tied to Visa products being used to facilitate sales of deepfake content, “particularly child exploitation.” The filing warned that “unmanaged exposure” could “threaten brand equity” and invite legal or regulatory scrutiny. (SEC)
On the business front, Deluxe Corp said on Thursday it will work with Visa to implement Visa Direct, the push-payments platform used for rapid payouts, as part of a new dlxFastFunds product. Deluxe said the tool is aimed at cutting the typical one- to two-day settlement delay, with its Brian Mahony calling cash-flow speed “critical for growth,” while Visa Direct chief Vira Platonova said efficient funding is becoming a “competitive advantage.” (Deluxe Corporation)
Visa’s annual meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27 and will be held online, the company said in meeting materials. Proxy votes can surface governance and reputational issues that rarely move quarterly numbers but can hang over sentiment in the run-up. (Visa Annual Report)
The stock is heading into that stretch with investors still keyed on travel and cross-border spending — cross-border volume typically carries higher fees for card networks. Visa in October forecast low double-digit net revenue growth for fiscal 2026, and said cross-border volume rose 12% in its latest quarter, though growth slowed from prior periods. (Reuters)
Technically, Visa is hovering just under the $350 mark after two straight declines, about 6.9% below its 52-week high of $375.51 and roughly 17% above its 52-week low of $299.00. (Visa Investor Relations)
But the setup cuts both ways. A hotter inflation reading could push out the path for Federal Reserve cuts and pressure rate-sensitive growth names, while any sign that U.S. consumer spending or cross-border travel demand is cooling would hit the part of Visa’s story investors pay for.
Next up, traders will parse Tuesday’s CPI and early bank results for read-throughs on card spending before Visa’s Jan. 27 annual meeting. Visa’s fiscal first-quarter results are expected later this month; Nasdaq’s earnings calendar pegs Jan. 29 as the estimated report date. (Nasdaq)
