NEW YORK, January 2, 2026, 17:22 ET — After-hours
- Netflix fell about 3% on the first trading day of 2026, tracking weakness in growth-heavy megacaps.
- The move came after Netflix said its Christmas Day NFL streams set U.S. viewership records.
- Investors are looking to Netflix’s Jan. 20 quarterly results and next week’s U.S. jobs report for the next catalysts.
Netflix shares were down 2.97% at $90.99 in after-hours trading on Friday, after falling through the regular session.
The decline matters now because Netflix is leaning harder into live sports and advertising to drive growth, and investors are testing whether those bets can offset a choppy backdrop for high-valuation tech.
It also lands as Treasury yields ticked up, a move that can pressure growth stocks by raising the discount rate investors use to value future profits. “Value is outperforming growth,” said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital. Reuters
Netflix said this week its Christmas Day National Football League broadcasts set new records, with Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings becoming the most-streamed NFL game in the United States.
The Lions-Vikings game drew 27.5 million U.S. viewers on average and peaked above 30 million, Netflix said, citing Nielsen data. The Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Commanders game averaged 19.9 million.
Netflix struck a deal last year to stream NFL games on Christmas Day through 2026, part of the league’s broader push to expand global reach.
Live sports are central to Netflix’s ad-supported plan — a lower-priced subscription tier that includes commercials — because marketers pay more to appear next to real-time events with large audiences. Netflix said last month its ads reach more than 190 million monthly active viewers globally, a viewer-based metric it calls MAVs.
On Friday, Netflix traded between $94.50 and $90.83, after opening at $94.11. Volume was about 40.9 million shares, according to market data.
The broader tape was mixed. The S&P 500 ended up 0.19% and the Dow gained 0.66%, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.03% as tech-related megastocks weighed.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 4.191%, up 3.8 basis points on the day, Reuters reported, keeping investors sensitive to rate moves.
Some investors have also been watching the company’s deal chatter with Warner Bros. Discovery after Reuters reported in December that Netflix had entered exclusive talks to acquire WBD’s studio and streaming service.
Next up is Netflix’s fourth-quarter report on Jan. 20, when it plans to post results and an outlook update, followed by a live earnings interview, the company said. Traders will be watching commentary on advertising momentum, content spend and live programming economics.
Macro catalysts could hit first. The U.S. employment report due Jan. 9 and the consumer price index report due Jan. 13 are among the releases that could move rate expectations, Reuters reported, with knock-on effects for growth stocks like Netflix.
