Costco stock today: COST at $862 as New Year’s Day shuts markets; SEC insider sale filing in focus

Costco stock today: COST at $862 as New Year’s Day shuts markets; SEC insider sale filing in focus

NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 10:52 ET — Market closed.

  • Costco Wholesale Corporation shares last closed down 0.4% at $862.34 in the final session of 2025.
  • A U.S. SEC filing showed Executive Vice President Javier Polit sold shares in late-December transactions.
  • Investors are looking ahead to Costco’s January sales cadence and key U.S. jobs and inflation data next week.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST.O) shares last closed down 0.4% at $862.34, after trading between $861.42 and $867.76 in the year’s final session on Wednesday. U.S. stock markets are closed on Thursday for the New Year’s Day holiday.

The holiday lull matters because liquidity thins out, making prices more sensitive to positioning and macro headlines than to fresh company news.

For Costco, investors are using the turn of the calendar to line up the next catalysts: a monthly sales update that can flag holiday traffic trends and a steady stream of U.S. data that can reset interest-rate expectations.

Wall Street ended 2025’s final session lower, with the S&P 500 down 0.74% and the Nasdaq off 0.76%, Reuters reported. “It’s perfectly fine in any bull market to have moments of cost,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, pointing to profit-taking when liquidity was low.

Macro data also stayed in focus. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 16,000 to 199,000 for the week ended Dec. 27, Reuters reported, as investors continued to weigh what the numbers imply for the Federal Reserve’s rate path. Reuters

A Form 4 filing — the SEC disclosure used to report insider trades — showed Executive Vice President Javier Polit sold 2,049 shares on Dec. 29 at a weighted-average price of $867.2054 and another 558.305 shares on Dec. 30 at $862.895. The transactions were worth about $2.26 million and left him with 10,189.592 shares, the filing showed. SEC

Insider sales can be routine and are often driven by taxes, diversification or planned selling programs, particularly around year-end. Investors generally put more weight on demand, membership metrics and margins than on any single executive transaction.

Technically, the stock’s low around $861 from Wednesday’s session is an immediate reference point for traders, with the prior session’s highs near $868 marking a near-term ceiling.

When trading resumes, the next scheduled company update is Costco’s December sales results on Jan. 7, according to the company. Monthly reports typically include comparable sales — sales at stores open at least a year — and e-commerce trends that investors use as a quick read on momentum.

Costco also has a shareholders’ meeting scheduled for Jan. 15, followed by January sales results due Feb. 4, the company’s investor calendar shows.

The next earnings checkpoint is the fiscal second-quarter earnings call scheduled for March 5, with investors watching for any commentary on membership renewals and cost pressures.

Macro releases could move the whole consumer sector. The U.S. employment report for December is scheduled for Jan. 9 and the consumer price index for December for Jan. 13, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — data points that can shift rate expectations and risk appetite for higher-valuation retail names. Bls

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