New York, Jan 20, 2026, 19:25 EST — After-hours
- Shares of Mastercard dropped amid a broader sell-off in U.S. equities.
- Payment stocks stayed in focus amid ongoing clashes over credit-card pricing plans and merchant fees.
- Mastercard is rolling out new tools aimed at AI-powered checkout and speeding up merchant payouts.
Mastercard Inc (MA.N) shares dropped 1.4% on Tuesday, ending the day at $531.74. Visa (V.N) edged down 0.7%, and American Express (AXP.N) fell 3.4%.
This shift is significant since Mastercard now trades less as a straightforward gauge of spending and more as a proxy for policy risk. The tape is volatile, with investors rapidly repricing any news linked to card economics.
Mastercard doesn’t make money from interest on balances like card issuers do; instead, it earns fees whenever transactions pass through its network. This shifts the spotlight to transaction volumes, pricing strategies, and any changes to payment regulations.
MarketWatch data shows Mastercard has fallen for three consecutive sessions, now trading roughly 12% below its 52-week high. Tuesday’s turnover hit about 4.1 million shares, outpacing the 50-day average of 2.9 million. Despite the losses, the stock held up better than several major banks during the selloff. 1
Wall Street registered its steepest one-day decline in three months as President Donald Trump warned of new tariffs targeting several European nations amid his Greenland purchase bid. The S&P 500 dropped 2.06%, the Nasdaq slid 2.39%, and the Dow fell 1.76%. 2
In Washington, traders kept an eye on a looming Trump administration deadline tied to a proposed one-year 10% cap on credit card interest rates. It remains unclear if this can be enforced without new legislation. “For now, it’s an overhang, but that overhang could clear quickly,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. Speaking from Davos, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told CNBC she doesn’t expect Congress to greenlight rate caps. 3
Merchant fees grabbed attention again as lawyers representing businesses suing Visa and Mastercard pushed a federal judge to approve a settlement that would let merchants tack on surcharges at checkout. Interchange fees—commonly known as swipe fees—are what merchants pay whenever customers use cards. Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, called the settlement “wrong from the start.” 4
Mastercard is pushing the concept of “agentic commerce,” where AI assistants handle shopping and payments on behalf of users. The company told Axios it’s collaborating with Google and Microsoft to set standards and is integrating Mastercard Agent Pay into Microsoft’s Copilot Checkout and OpenAI’s Instant Checkout in ChatGPT. Executive vice president Sherri Haymond said the rollout will move “at the speed of trust.” Sabrina Tharani, a senior vice president at Mastercard, added that “no single company is going to define the agentic economy.” 5
Mastercard announced a partnership with South African e-commerce platform BoxCommerce to launch a prepaid card program designed to give small businesses quick access to their sales revenue. BoxCommerce CEO Craig McLeod highlighted that merchants can “receive their earnings instantly,” enabling them to reinvest cash directly into inventory and operations. 6
The downside risk remains. Should tariff threats solidify into actual trade barriers, or discussions about capping rates become law, investors expect increased strain on fee-driven models and the spending that depends on them.
Traders will be watching closely on Wednesday to see if Mastercard can maintain its strength against the broader market, while waiting on Washington for any clarity on upcoming credit card regulations. Mastercard plans to release its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings on Jan. 29, followed by a conference call at 9 a.m. ET. 7
