NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 16:41 ET — After-hours
- Alphabet’s Class C (GOOG) closed at $313.61, down 0.4%, and edged higher after the bell.
- U.S. stocks ended lower as megacap tech retreated; the Nasdaq fell 0.5%.
- Google said its December 2025 “core update” to Search has finished rolling out.
Alphabet Inc’s Class C (non-voting) shares (GOOG.O) ended the regular session down 0.4% on Monday and were little changed after the bell as heavyweight technology stocks pulled back in thin year-end trading. In after-hours trading — electronic trading after the 4 p.m. close — GOOG traded around $314.4.
The drift lower matters now because Alphabet has been a key beneficiary of the 2025 run in large-cap technology, leaving investors sensitive to any pause in the sector as December liquidity thins. Alphabet is up roughly two-thirds in 2025, according to recent Wall Street commentary.
“This is (not) the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” said Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust, pointing to valuations and balance sheets across the largest tech names. Reuters
Alphabet closed at $313.61, down $1.35 from Friday’s close, after trading between $311.90 and $314.46, according to price data. After the close, the stock recouped part of the day’s decline, up about 0.25% from the regular-session finish.
Wall Street’s main indexes ended lower, with the S&P 500 down 0.35% and the Nasdaq off 0.50%, as the technology sector weighed on performance. Nvidia fell 1.2% and Palantir Technologies slid 2.4%, Reuters reported.
The pullback came after last week’s gains pushed the S&P 500 to record highs and left it within about 1% of the 7,000 mark, a milestone some traders have been watching into year-end.
On the company front, Google said Monday that the rollout of its December 2025 “core update” was complete. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in Search. Search Engine Land
Those ranking changes can reshape web traffic, which matters to publishers and advertisers that rely on Google’s search ecosystem, even when there is no immediate read-through to quarterly revenue.
Investors’ bigger debate around Alphabet remains the same: whether heavy spending on AI infrastructure keeps translating into durable advertising demand and faster cloud growth, or whether returns take longer to show up in margins.
The near-term macro calendar is relatively light, but traders are watching minutes from the Federal Reserve’s previous meeting — the detailed record of its policy discussion — along with weekly jobless claims, Reuters said.
Seasonal patterns are also in focus. The “Santa Claus rally” refers to the tendency for stocks to rise in the last five trading days of the year and the first two of January, according to Stock Trader’s Almanac cited by Reuters. Reuters
Before the next session, markets face holiday scheduling: the NYSE and Nasdaq are closed on New Year’s Day. In bonds, SIFMA recommends an early close at 2 p.m. ET on Dec. 31.
For Alphabet, the nearest price markers are Friday’s close near $315 and Monday’s low around $312; the stock’s ability to hold that band could help set the tone as 2026 begins.
