NEW YORK, February 12, 2026, 14:33 EST — Regular session
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) slipped 1.2% to $530.99 on Thursday afternoon, pulling back alongside other payment stocks. Visa was down 0.8%, while American Express lost 2.4%.
Traders kept to the sidelines Thursday, with Wall Street bracing for Friday’s U.S. consumer price index (CPI) after hotter-than-forecast jobs data rattled expectations for imminent rate cuts. “The bull case on the Fed cutting was pretty much centered around the weak employment picture, so that case was challenged,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO and CIO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors. 1
The battle over card network interchange fees — those “swipe fees” tacked on to every card sale — flared up once again. Walmart and other major retailers pressed U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan for a hearing before he decides on the Visa-Mastercard settlement. Walmart attorney Jesse Panuccio argued a hearing would help the judge “cut through” the mountain of filings. The deal on the table would drop posted credit interchange rates by 0.1 percentage point for five years, with a cap on standard consumer rates at 1.25% for the next eight, according to the report. 2
Mastercard got a boost in visibility from a new bank tie-up: Truist Financial rolled out what it called its first open-banking integration, kicking off with a link to Mastercard’s open finance platform. Truist’s pitch: both customers and small businesses can now route data to fintech apps using direct, tokenized connections—sidestepping the need to hand over usernames or passwords. “Trust is the critical ingredient,” said Bart Willaert, Mastercard’s executive vice president for open finance in the Americas. 3
Just a day back, Mastercard submitted its Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, a filing with U.S. securities regulators shows. 4
Mastercard and logistics outfit Bosta are teaming up in Egypt, announcing plans Tuesday for a discount offer targeting Mastercard Business cardholders. The collaboration also connects payment tools with logistics solutions for small and mid-sized merchants. “SMEs play a central role in building resilient, future-ready economies,” said Mohamed Assem, a Mastercard executive. 5
The sector’s not out of the woods on fee compression, and it’s watching new payment rails cut into card volume. In Brazil, Pix—run by the central bank—could grab half of e-commerce transactions by 2028, according to payments firm Ebanx. Last year, Pix already nudged ahead of credit cards for online share. “A lot of trust-building” has gone into Pix, Ebanx chief product officer Eduardo de Abreu said. One more wrinkle: a hotter-than-expected CPI print could drive yields higher, chipping away at risk appetite. 6
Mastercard topped analysts’ Q4 profit forecasts last month and is now planning to cut roughly 4% of staff worldwide as it shifts investment priorities. “We expect to record a one-time restructuring charge in Q1 of approximately $200 million,” CFO Sachin Mehra told analysts. 7
Investors are caught between stable transaction volumes and a growing crackdown—legal challenges and regulatory moves aimed at fees and network restrictions keep intensifying.
Key stock movers? That’ll be Judge Cogan’s decision on oral arguments for the settlement, plus the way traders react to Friday’s inflation numbers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out its January CPI figures on Friday, Feb. 13, with the release set for 8:30 a.m. ET. 8
