New York, Feb 15, 2026, 15:06 (EST) — The market has closed.
- Spotify finished Friday at $458.34, rising 2.8%. Shares fluctuated during the session from $444.81 to as high as $461.92.
- Wall Street ended the day with a split performance; rate-cut hopes held up, yet concerns over AI disruption left investors on edge.
- U.S. markets are closed Monday. Investors now look ahead to Tuesday’s open, with major data and earnings still on deck this week.
Spotify Technology S.A. ended Friday up 2.8%, finishing at $458.34. Shares moved between $444.81 and $461.92 during the session. Over the last year, the stock has dropped roughly 29%, still far from its 52-week peak of $702.84. (Reuters)
Growth stocks struggled to find footing even as the market got a late-week lift. The S&P 500 managed a slim 0.05% gain, but the Nasdaq fell 0.22%. January’s U.S. consumer price data came in lower than expected, prompting traders to slightly raise odds for a June rate cut, according to CME’s FedWatch tool. “Large cap tech stocks continue to be an anchor on the market,” noted Michael James, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities. (Reuters)
The back-and-forth drags into a long weekend. In its “Week Ahead” piece, Reuters flagged a broader global shift out of expensive growth stocks, highlighting U.S. GDP figures and Walmart’s upcoming report as key signals for how much steam is left in the move. (Reuters)
Spotify’s AI story is moving fast. According to Business Insider, Co-CEO Gustav Söderström noted that certain senior engineers “haven’t written a single line of code since December”—these days, they’re mostly overseeing and refining code generated by AI. (Business Insider)
Profit’s front and center for the company these days. Spotify reported 290 million premium subscribers in the fourth quarter, up 10% from a year earlier. Monthly active users hit 751 million, an 11% rise. Operating income totaled 701 million euros. Looking ahead, Spotify expects to reach 759 million monthly active users in the first quarter and operating income of 660 million euros. Revenue is projected at 4.5 billion euros, and gross margin, which measures what’s left after content and direct costs, is pegged at 32.8%. Söderström pointed to an “AI paradigm shift” across the industry, saying “those who embrace this change and move fast” will come out ahead. (Spotify)
Still, traders haven’t hesitated to dump stocks they see as lagging in AI. Barclays equity strategist Emmanuel Cau described the mood as “sell first think later” with anxiety about disruption rippling through different sectors. According to Reuters, the S&P 500 Software & Services index has shed around $2 trillion since peaking in October. (Reuters)
Spotify isn’t your typical software play, but investors treat it like one—fixated on margins and always bracing for shifts in ad revenue if marketers get jittery. Pressure from heavyweight rivals Apple and Amazon keeps the competitive bar high.
Investors are weighing if Friday’s bounce was just a blip in a thin holiday session or the beginning of more consistent buying following a tough stretch for growth stocks. Traders are eyeing the $462 level after the stock’s move higher on Friday.
U.S. markets are shut Monday, so the action picks back up Tuesday at the open. That’s when rate bets and the ongoing rotation trade meet head-on, leaving Spotify’s stock to stand on its own — with little in the way of fresh company news to support it.
