NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 15:29 ET — Market closed
- KLA ended the last trading session of 2025 lower, underperforming key chip-equipment peers.
- Thin year-end trading and profit-taking pressured tech as Wall Street headed into the New Year holiday.
- Investors are now looking to late-January earnings and early-January U.S. data for the next directional cue.
Shares of KLA Corp fell 2.3% to $1,215.08 at Wednesday’s close, outpacing declines in chip-tool peers Applied Materials, down 1.1%, and Lam Research, down 1.5%.
The pullback matters because KLA is a bellwether for semiconductor manufacturing spending, selling process-control tools that help chipmakers spot defects and improve yields — the percentage of usable chips produced.
Investors have leaned heavily into chip-linked names on the back of AI-driven demand, and the sector is now heading into the first major checkpoint of 2026: guidance for the next leg of capital spending.
Wall Street’s major indexes ended lower on Wednesday in thin holiday liquidity, and the market is closed Thursday for New Year’s Day. “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 is low. Reuters
KLA, based in Milpitas, California, focuses on inspection and metrology — equipment that measures patterns and materials on wafers, the disks used to make chips — as manufacturers push into more complex designs.
The next debate for the stock is how much demand holds up outside the most advanced AI-related chip builds, and how quickly customers normalize spending after a strong 2025 rally.
In October, KLA forecast fiscal second-quarter sales of about $3.23 billion and flagged China-related risks tied to U.S. export controls, including an expected $300 million to $350 million hit to sales over the next five quarters. ASML has also warned its China sales would drop.
Ahead of the next report, analysts expect KLA to post profit of $8.75 per share for fiscal second quarter, up from $8.20 a year earlier, according to Barchart. The same preview cited KLA’s revenue outlook range of $3.1 billion to $3.4 billion and EPS range of $7.92 to $9.48.
That puts the spotlight on whether KLA can defend margins while keeping service and upgrades growing, and whether management commentary points to any change in demand from memory makers and foundries.
Before the next session, traders will watch Friday’s data calendar for early direction on rates-sensitive tech: initial jobless claims are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by construction spending at 10:00 a.m. ET, with the ISM manufacturing report due Monday.
On the chart, KLA is about 5.6% below its 52-week high of $1,286.81 set on Dec. 26, after three straight daily declines into year-end.
MarketBeat pegs KLA’s next earnings report for Jan. 29 after the close — an estimate based on past reporting patterns — with a conference call listed for 6:00 p.m. ET. The next update on orders, China exposure and 2026 demand assumptions is likely to drive the next decisive move in KLAC.
