New York, Feb 13, 2026, 14:18 (EST) — Regular session
- Costco shares rise nearly 2% in afternoon trade, holding above $1,000
- A cooler U.S. inflation print lifted rate-cut expectations and steady-growth retailers
- A new rotisserie chicken lawsuit adds a headline risk into early-March results
Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O) shares rose 1.9% to $1,017.60 in afternoon trade on Friday, back above the $1,000 mark as easing U.S. inflation data lifted rate-sensitive consumer names. The stock has traded between $994.00 and $1,022.89 and last changed hands with about 1.5 million shares traded.
The move matters because Costco sits right where investors are most jumpy right now: inflation, rates and the U.S. consumer. When the market starts to price in easier borrowing costs, premium-priced retailers with steady demand can catch a bid fast.
It also comes with a company checkpoint close enough to matter. Costco has another sales and earnings update coming in early March, and traders tend to treat its monthly numbers as a quick read on traffic and pricing power.
U.S. consumer prices rose 0.2% in January, below economists’ forecasts for a 0.3% increase, while core CPI — excluding food and energy — rose 0.3%, the Labor Department reported. “Price pressures remain a little too hot for comfort,” said James McCann, senior economist at Edward Jones, though he added the “direction of travel” for inflation “continues to look to be lower.” (Reuters)
Markets nudged up the odds of a Federal Reserve cut in June after the inflation report, even as big-tech weakness kept trading uneven, Reuters reported. “The trend in disinflation continues,” said Michael Metcalfe, head of market strategy at State Street Markets. (Reuters)
Costco’s stock had already snapped higher on Thursday, closing up 2.1% and beating Target and Amazon on a down day for the broader market, according to MarketWatch data. Walmart rose sharply in the same session. (MarketWatch)
Earlier this month, Costco said January net sales rose 9.3% to $21.33 billion, while comparable sales — growth at stores open at least a year — rose 7.1%. Digitally-enabled sales, the company’s e-commerce-linked metric, jumped 34.4%, and Costco said the later timing of Lunar and Chinese New Year weighed on international comparisons. (Costco Investor Relations)
Costco has scheduled its fiscal second-quarter earnings and February sales release for March 5 at 1:15 p.m. Pacific time, according to its investor relations calendar. Investors will be watching for any shift in traffic, online demand and membership economics as inflation cools but service costs stay sticky. (Costco Investor Relations)
But a new lawsuit adds a headline risk. An animal-rights nonprofit filed a proposed class action alleging Costco’s chicken processing plant in Fremont, Nebraska, has salmonella contamination and fails U.S. Department of Agriculture safety standards; Costco did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported. The complaint targets the $4.99 rotisserie chicken — a “loss-leader,” or an item priced cheaply to pull shoppers into stores. (Reuters)
The next hard catalyst for Costco shares is March 5, when the company updates investors on quarterly results and February sales.
