NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 20:53 ET — Market closed
- Lam Research closed down 1.5% at $171.18 in the final U.S. session of 2025.
- U.S. stocks ended lower in holiday-thin trade, with markets shut Thursday for New Year’s Day.
- Focus turns to late-January earnings expectations, chip-spending signals and China export policy.
Lam Research Corp shares fell 1.5% to $171.18 on Wednesday, extending a three-session slide as the chip equipment maker closed out the final trading day of 2025.
The decline came as Wall Street finished the year with modest losses in thin holiday trading, with the S&P 500 down 0.74% and the Nasdaq off 0.76%, Reuters reported.
That matters now because Lam is a bellwether for wafer fabrication equipment — the costly chipmaking tools used to build semiconductors — and positioning into 2026 is being driven by expectations for customer capital spending and shifts in trade policy.
Lam’s volume was light at about 4.9 million shares, well below its 50-day average of roughly 10.9 million, MarketWatch data showed.
The stock ended about 4.8% below its 52-week high of $179.80 reached on Dec. 26, keeping that level in view as near-term resistance.
Peers also finished lower. Applied Materials fell 1.1% and KLA slid 2.3%, while ASML edged down about 0.3% in U.S. trading.
“I do not expect that the last few days will have so much bearing on the performance of the next year,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, pointing to profit-taking when liquidity is low. Reuters
Policy headlines remained part of the backdrop for the sector after Washington granted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co an annual export license allowing it to import U.S.-made chipmaking equipment to its Nanjing plant in China, Reuters reported.
The broader pause will be brief: U.S. markets are closed Thursday for New Year’s Day, Reuters noted, and reopen Friday.
Before the next session, traders will be looking for direction from early-year positioning and any fresh signals on 2026 chip capacity spending, which tends to drive orders for Lam’s systems and services.
On the chart, support sits near Wednesday’s intraday low of $170.76, while resistance remains near $179.80 — a level the stock failed to reclaim into the close.
Lam has not confirmed an earnings date for its next quarterly report, but market calendars such as TipRanks and Investing.com list late-January timing. Investors will measure results against the company’s most recent outlook, when Lam projected December-quarter revenue of about $5.20 billion, plus or minus $300 million, and adjusted profit of about $1.15 per share, plus or minus 10 cents.
