NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 16:39 EST — After-hours
- Microsoft shares closed down 1.1% on Thursday; PayPal is powering payments for the new Copilot Checkout feature
- Copilot Checkout is live on Copilot.com in the U.S., with Shopify and Stripe also involved
- Microsoft is due to report fiscal Q2 results on Jan. 28 after the close
Microsoft (MSFT.O) shares closed down 1.1% on Thursday at $478.11 on about 18 million shares. PayPal (PYPL.O) said it is teaming up with Microsoft to support Copilot Checkout inside the company’s Copilot artificial-intelligence (AI) assistant, starting on Copilot.com, and aiming to “enable seamless, reliable transactions,” PayPal executive Michelle Gill said.
The announcement landed as investors turned more selective on AI-linked stocks whose valuations have been lifted by a long run of gains, while defense names rallied. “Show me how you monetize this,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, describing a market that is pressing for returns on spending. Reuters
Microsoft is not alone in trying to bring checkout into chat. The Verge reported Copilot can surface “Buy” buttons during a conversation and take users through a checkout flow inside the app, echoing similar pushes from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s AI products.
Microsoft said Copilot Checkout is now available in the U.S. on Copilot.com, with PayPal, Shopify and Stripe as partners. Shoppers can buy from Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Ashley Furniture, as well as some Etsy sellers, without being redirected; retailers remain the merchant of record, meaning they handle the sale and customer charge. “We’re meeting buyers at the moment intent becomes action,” Etsy Chief Product and Technology Officer Rafe Colburn said. Source
On the Street, Wells Fargo cut its price target — its estimate of where the stock could trade over the next 12 months — to $665 from $700, while keeping an Overweight rating, a call that the stock should outperform peers. “AI is still the name of the 2026 game,” the broker wrote, while cautioning adoption may be uneven. TipRanks
At around $478, Microsoft is about 14% below its 52-week high of $555.45 and roughly 39% above its low of $344.79. Traders are watching the $476 area, near Thursday’s intraday low, after the stock failed to hold above $483 earlier in the session.
Next up for the broader market is Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, with bond yields and rate expectations doing much of the work for big-tech valuations. A hotter print could keep pressure on mega-caps into next week.
Microsoft said it will report fiscal second-quarter results after the market closes on Jan. 28, with a conference call scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. Investors will listen for guidance on Azure cloud demand and on capital spending for data centers that support AI services.
But Copilot Checkout is early and untested at scale, and retailers may push back if a new flow sits between them and customers or adds friction in payments and returns. For now, MSFT.O traders get their next hard datapoint on Jan. 28.
