NEW YORK, Jan 2, 2026, 18:38 ET — After-hours
- Costco shares fell about 0.9% after hours on Friday.
- A Telsey note kept a bullish rating but forecast sharply slower December comparable sales growth ahead of Costco’s Jan. 7 update.
- Traders are focusing on traffic, average spend and digital sales trends for a read on early-2026 demand.
Costco Wholesale Corp shares slipped about 0.9% in after-hours trading on Friday to $854.50, after swinging between $852.59 and $865.23 in the session as the new year opened. Trading volume was about 2.37 million shares, according to market data.
The move put focus back on Costco’s next near-term catalyst: its December sales report, due next week, which investors use as an early gauge of holiday demand and momentum heading into 2026.
Costco’s monthly sales update is closely watched because it breaks out “comparable sales” — sales at warehouses open at least a year — which helps investors judge underlying growth without the boost from new store openings.
Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an Outperform rating and a $1,100 price target ahead of the update, but forecast a sharp deceleration in December trends. Telsey projected total comparable sales growth of 2.2% versus 7.4% a year earlier, with core merchandise comparable sales up 2.0% excluding gasoline and foreign-exchange effects; it also forecast U.S. comps excluding gas at 1.0%, Canada at 4.0% and other international markets at 5.0%, with traffic up 0.5%, average ticket up 1.7% and digital sales growth slowing to 5.0%.
The numbers matter because Costco’s monthly report is one of the first hard datapoints of the year for a major U.S. retailer, and the split between traffic and ticket can hint at whether shoppers are buying more items or just paying more per trip.
A weaker print can also shift expectations for Costco’s fiscal second quarter, when investors watch for signs that demand is holding up as the company manages costs and keeps pricing sharp.
Broader markets finished mostly higher on the first trading day of 2026, with the Dow up 0.66% and the S&P 500 up 0.19% while the Nasdaq edged down 0.03%, Reuters reported. “The market is seeing a ‘buy the dip, sell the rip,’ trading mentality,” Joe Mazzola, head of trading & derivatives strategy at Charles Schwab, told Reuters, with next week’s U.S. labor-market data in focus. Reuters
That tone can leave less room for disappointment in big, widely owned names, and it keeps attention on scheduled updates that can quickly reset near-term sentiment.
For Costco, investors will be watching whether the expected slowdown shows up most in U.S. traffic, in average ticket size, or in the pace of digital growth — a mix that can shape how sustainable demand looks beyond the holiday season.
Costco’s investor relations calendar lists the December sales release for Jan. 7 at 1:15 p.m. PT (4:15 p.m. ET). The company is also scheduled to hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on Jan. 15 and host its fiscal second-quarter earnings call on March 5.
After the sales print, attention is likely to shift to how Costco is balancing growth with costs, including freight and labor, and whether sales trends support steady margins into the back half of the fiscal year.
For now, traders appear to be treating next week’s sales report as the next check on demand — and the next reason for COST to move quickly in either direction.
