NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 06:40 PM ET — Market closed
- POET last closed at $6.33 on Dec. 31, down 2.9%, with U.S. markets shut Thursday for New Year’s Day.
- Tech and chip shares eased into year-end on thin liquidity, weighing on smaller hardware names.
- Focus shifts to Jan. 2’s reopen and early-January U.S. data that could reset rate-cut expectations.
POET Technologies Inc. shares ended the year’s final session down 2.9% at $6.33, after a late-December pullback in tech and semiconductor-linked stocks. U.S. markets were closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day.
The move matters now because holiday-thin trading can magnify swings in smaller stocks, and investors are resetting positioning for the first session of 2026. “It’s perfectly fine in any bull market to have moments of cost,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, pointing to profit-taking when liquidity was low. Reuters
Wall Street’s major indexes ended lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 down 0.74% and the Nasdaq off 0.76% in the final session of 2025, Reuters reported. Tech was among the laggards on the day.
Chip sentiment also softened into the close, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) down about 1.2% on Dec. 31, according to Investing.com data.
In POET’s orbit, optical and data-center connectivity names were also weaker on the session: Lumentum fell 0.8%, Coherent slid 1.2%, and Marvell dropped 2.1%, based on market data.
POET, based in Toronto, designs photonic integrated circuits, or PICs—chips that integrate optical components used to move data with light—along with light sources and optical modules aimed at AI and data center markets, an SEC filing shows.
The company has not flagged a fresh earnings update in the past two days. Its last quarterly update in November highlighted early-stage product and non-recurring engineering revenue and ongoing development work, according to a company release.
Trading on Dec. 31 was active, with about 4.9 million shares changing hands as POET traded between $6.19 and $6.50, Nasdaq historical data show. The stock has fallen in each of the past two sessions.
Technical traders will be watching whether POET holds the $6 area after testing $6.19 intraday on Wednesday, with nearby resistance around the prior close at $6.52. The stock’s 52-week range is $3.09 to $9.41, according to Investing.com data, leaving it about one-third below its yearly high.
With markets reopening on Friday, investors will gauge whether year-start flows reverse late-December selling pressure in smaller growth names tied to the AI hardware theme. The broader market backdrop remains central for POET because sentiment around rates and data-center spending can drive risk appetite quickly in early-stage tech stocks.
On the macro calendar, the U.S. employment report for December 2025 is scheduled for Jan. 9 at 8:30 a.m. ET, and the Consumer Price Index for December 2025 is due Jan. 13, both from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting runs Jan. 27–28, according to the Fed’s calendar.
Company-specific visibility is limited in the near term, with the next earnings date not yet formally set; Zacks’ calendar estimates POET’s next quarterly report around late March. Until then, investors will be looking for signs of customer adoption and repeat orders that translate product development into sustained revenue.
