NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 09:49 ET — Regular session
- Microsoft shares fell about 0.3% early Monday as U.S. stocks opened lower
- Traders are focused on Tuesday’s Fed meeting minutes for clues on 2026 rate cuts
- Investors continue to scrutinize Big Tech AI spending and payback timelines
Microsoft (MSFT.O) shares were down 0.3% at $486.46 in early trading on Monday.
The pullback came as Wall Street’s year-end rally cooled in holiday-thinned conditions, with heavyweight technology stocks giving up some of last week’s gains.
Investors are looking to the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes on Tuesday — a detailed account of policymakers’ latest debate — for signals on the path of U.S. interest rates into 2026.
Fidelity International multi-asset portfolio manager Becky Qin said, “We’re not seeing runaway inflation risk as a base case so we’re still thinking the Fed has room to cut.” Reuters
The Fed cut its main funds rate this month to a 3.5%-3.75% range, and money markets are pricing further cuts by September, Reuters reported.
U.S. stocks started the day lower. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.76% at the opening bell, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.38% and the Dow was down 0.15%, according to Reuters.
Globally, equities were on track to finish 2025 at record highs, while the dollar hovered near its lowest in almost three months on expectations of more Fed easing next year, Reuters said.
Futures linked to the Nasdaq 100 were down about 0.8% in premarket trading, with Nvidia and Tesla falling more than 1%, Investors.com reported.
Microsoft’s market value stood near $3.85 trillion, keeping it among the most influential stocks for broad U.S. indexes.
The stock remains a key barometer for investor appetite for the “AI trade” — bets on companies expected to benefit most from artificial intelligence — because Microsoft sells cloud capacity and AI tools across its product suite. Reuters
In October, Microsoft warned that capital expenditures — spending on long-lived assets such as data centers — would rise this year, after reporting a record capex bill of nearly $35 billion for its fiscal first quarter, Reuters reported.
That spending backdrop has left investors watching for evidence that rising AI infrastructure costs are translating into faster cloud growth without squeezing profitability.
Microsoft’s investor relations site says the date for its next earnings release will be announced soon, leaving near-term focus squarely on macro signals and year-end positioning.
Microsoft traded between $484.17 and $487.30 earlier on Monday, and was last down $1.25 from Friday’s close, market data showed.
