NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 14:14 ET — Regular session
- Costco shares edged lower in afternoon trading as U.S. stocks drifted in thin year-end volume.
- Investors’ next catalyst is the company’s December sales release scheduled for Jan. 7.
- Retail peers were mixed, with Walmart down and BJ’s Wholesale higher.
Costco Wholesale Corporation shares were slightly lower on Wednesday as Wall Street eased in the final trading session of 2025.
The muted move matters because Costco is closely watched as a bellwether for value-focused spending and membership-driven retail, especially heading into fresh monthly sales data in early January.
It also comes during thin holiday trading, when smaller orders can have an outsized impact on prices and investors reposition ahead of the New Year’s market break.
Costco shares were down $1.28, or about 0.1%, at $864.37 in afternoon trading. The stock ranged between $862.25 and $867.76 earlier in the session.
Sector action was mixed. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF was down about 0.3% while the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF slipped about 0.2%.
Retail heavyweights also diverged, with Walmart down about 0.2% and BJ’s Wholesale up about 0.5%.
Broader markets were slightly lower and volumes remained light in the holiday-shortened week, with U.S. markets set to close on Thursday for New Year’s Day, according to Reuters. “It’s perfectly fine in any bull market to have moments of cost,” Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, told Reuters. Reuters
Costco had no major company-specific filings or fresh earnings headlines in the past day, leaving the stock largely trading with the broader tape and sector flows.
Away from markets, an Associated Press report said lobster meat destined for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota was stolen in Massachusetts by a fraudulent trucking company, underscoring a wider rise in cargo-theft schemes.
Investors are still anchoring expectations to Costco’s latest quarterly performance. The company said on Dec. 11 that fiscal first-quarter net sales rose 8.2% to $65.98 billion, while membership fees climbed to $1.33 billion; net income was $2.00 billion, or $4.50 per diluted share.
Comparable sales — a retail metric that tracks revenue at locations open at least a year — rose 6.4% for the quarter, and digitally enabled comparable sales increased 20.5%, Costco said.
The next near-term test is Costco’s monthly sales reporting cadence. The company’s investor calendar shows its December sales results are scheduled for Jan. 7 at 1:15 p.m. PT, with January sales results scheduled for Feb. 4.
Costco’s calendar also lists its shareholder meeting on Jan. 15 and its fiscal second-quarter earnings call on March 5. Traders will be looking for updates on traffic and ticket trends in the sales reports, and for management commentary on costs and margins during the next earnings discussion.
