New York, January 6, 2026, 12:01 (EST) — Regular session
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) shares rose on Tuesday, gaining $9.15, or about 1.0%, to $884.89 in midday trading.
The move follows a fresh upbeat call from Mizuho, which upgraded Costco to “outperform” and said the pullback in the stock reflects execution strains tied to heavy traffic rather than a broken growth story. “All current issues swirling around shares are the byproduct of simply having too much consumer demand,” analyst David Bellinger wrote. 1
Investors now have a near-term checkpoint: Costco is scheduled to release December sales results on Wednesday at 1:15 p.m. PT (4:15 p.m. ET). The report typically includes comparable sales — sales at stores open at least a year — a widely watched measure of underlying demand. 2
The broader backdrop is also in play as traders brace for U.S. labor-market data that can shift interest-rate expectations and ripple into consumer stocks. Wall Street’s focus has turned to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for December, due at 8:30 a.m. ET. 3
Retail peers were mixed, with Walmart fractionally higher and Target up, while BJ’s Wholesale Club traded lower.
For Costco, the sales update will be parsed for core merchandise momentum after stripping out gasoline and foreign-exchange effects, which can distort headline comparable sales. Investors will also be alert to any signs that traffic is shifting from older, high-volume warehouses to newer “fill-in” locations, a key argument in Mizuho’s thesis.
Beyond the monthly print, the next hard catalyst is Costco’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call, scheduled for March 5 at 2:00 p.m. PT. That report will bring a fuller look at margins, wage and operating-cost trends, and membership fee income. 4
But the near-term setup carries risk: a softer-than-expected December readout on core comparable sales could revive concerns that growth is cooling after the stock’s recent slide from prior highs. Volatility in gasoline and currency trends can also muddy the headline numbers and trigger whipsaw moves.
Investors’ next tests are Costco’s December sales release on Jan. 7, the U.S. payrolls report on Jan. 9, and Costco’s fiscal second-quarter results on March 5.
