NEW YORK, January 4, 2026, 12:56 ET — Market closed
- Gartner shares fell 6.1% on Friday, underperforming IT services peers in the first session of 2026.
- The selloff left the stock near $237 after it traded as low as about $237.
- Investors now look to Monday’s U.S. data and Gartner’s next earnings window for direction.
Gartner, Inc. shares closed down 6.1% on Friday at $237.03, marking a sharp drop in the first trading session of 2026. The stock opened at $250.39 and slid to an intraday low of $236.69 before paring losses.
The move matters now because January is shaping up as a test of whether companies keep spending on research and advisory work or lean harder on cost controls. Big early swings can reset positioning quickly, especially when investors are trying to gauge how much growth they can pay for.
For Gartner, the market’s read-through is straightforward: its subscription research and consulting businesses are tied to enterprise budgets. A rough start to the year raises the stakes for the next set of company updates, and for any signals that tech buying cycles are stabilizing.
The decline outpaced moves in several adjacent services names. Accenture fell 3.1% and Cognizant slid 2.1% in the same session, while research peer Forrester was little changed.
Friday’s broader tape offered little cover. The S&P 500 rose 0.19% and the Dow gained 0.66%, while the Nasdaq was flat, in a session marked by thin participation after the holiday break. “Today is kind of a holiday trading day, lighter volumes, people not engaged normally,” said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital. Reuters
Gartner is best known for its research subscriptions, conferences and consulting, and investors tend to track “contract value” — the annualized value of subscription contracts — as a demand gauge. In its most recent quarterly report, the company said total contract value rose 3% to about $5 billion, and it lifted its annual forecast on steady demand. Reuters
Technically, traders are watching whether the stock can hold the area around Friday’s low and reclaim the $250 zone where it opened. A failure to stabilize near current levels would keep the chart tilted toward sellers going into earnings season.
But the downside scenario is not hard to sketch: a weaker run of U.S. data could revive recession fears, while hotter inflation could push rate-cut expectations out — a bad mix for stocks with premium valuations. Reuters reported investors are focused on the January 9 U.S. employment report and January 13 consumer price index data as markets look for direction. Reuters
