NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 09:30 ET — Market closed
- Microsoft shares fell 0.8% in the last session to $483.62.
- A Wedbush note pointed to FY26 as a key year for Azure and AI deployments.
- U.S. stocks reopen Friday after the New Year’s Day holiday.
Microsoft Corp shares fell 0.8% to $483.62 in the final trading session of 2025 on Wednesday.
With U.S. markets closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day, investors are using the break to reset positions ahead of Friday’s reopen and a data-heavy start to January.
The stock’s late dip mattered because Microsoft is one of the biggest weights in U.S. tech benchmarks, and its move helped pull the sector lower as the Nasdaq slipped 0.76% and the S&P 500 fell 0.74%, Reuters reported. Thin holiday liquidity encouraged profit-taking into the close.
Microsoft traded between $483.30 and $488.14 on Wednesday, leaving a tight range that traders often use to set early-January support and resistance levels.
Other large-cap tech names were also softer in the year-end session, with Alphabet’s two main share classes both down modestly, MarketWatch data showed.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote that “FY26 for Microsoft remains the true inflection year of AI growth,” arguing Wall Street may still be underestimating Azure’s growth runway. Business Insider
The macro backdrop stayed in focus after U.S. weekly jobless claims fell to 199,000 in the latest report, while investors weighed what a slower labor market means for the Federal Reserve’s next rate decisions.
Bond markets closed early on Wednesday and are also shut Thursday, keeping liquidity light until Friday’s reopen, MarketWatch reported. That puts extra emphasis on the first big readouts of 2026.
Top of the Friday calendar is the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing survey for December at 10:00 a.m. ET, a closely watched gauge of factory activity that can move Treasury yields and rate-sensitive growth stocks.
For Microsoft, the next major company catalyst is quarterly results, expected on January 28 after the close, according to Yahoo Finance’s earnings calendar. Investors typically key on Azure demand signals and any commentary on AI-related infrastructure spending.
Technically, traders have been marking support near $483.30 and resistance around $488.14 from the last session’s low and high, with $490 looming as the next round-number level.
Until those catalysts hit, Microsoft’s early-2026 tape is likely to be driven by how fast dip-buyers return after the holiday pause, and how markets react to incoming data that can shift the rate outlook for high-multiple megacaps.
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