How to Find Out What Stocks Did Today
Where to check stock prices and market moves right now
The fastest way to see what stocks did today is to search the stock ticker symbol on Google, Yahoo Finance, or your brokerage's website. Type the symbol — Apple is AAPL, Microsoft is MSFT — and you'll see the price at market close, the dollar change, and the percentage change since yesterday's close. If you own the stock in a brokerage account, your account dashboard will also show you the same information for your holdings.
If you want to see what happened during the trading day itself — not just the final price — financial websites let you watch the price move in real time during market hours (9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time on weekdays). The price you see at 3:59 p.m. is different from the price at 10 a.m., and some investors want to track that movement. Most brokerages show intraday charts for free to account holders.
Key Takeaways
- Stock prices update during market hours (9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday) and you can see the final price for the day on any financial website within seconds of the 4 p.m. close.
- The price change shown is always compared to the previous trading day's close, so a stock that closed at $100 yesterday and $102 today shows a +$2 or +2% change.
- Your brokerage account shows you the current price of any stock you own, plus the gain or loss since you bought it — which is different from the daily change.
- After-hours trading (4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern) happens on some stocks, but the official "close" price is the 4 p.m. price, and most individual investors do not trade after hours.
Understanding the price change you see
When a financial website says a stock is "up $3" or "down 2%", it is always comparing today's closing price to yesterday's closing price. The closing price is the last price the stock traded at when the market shut down at 4 p.m. Eastern time. If you see a stock listed as $50 today and $48 yesterday, that is a $2 gain, or about 4%.
The percentage change is usually more useful than the dollar change because it tells you the actual return. A $2 move on a $50 stock is bigger than a $2 move on a $100 stock, even though the dollar amount is the same. That is why financial sites show both.
The difference between daily change and your personal gain or loss
If you own a stock, your brokerage account shows two different numbers: the daily change (what the stock did today compared to yesterday) and your personal gain or loss (what the stock has done since you bought it). These are not the same thing. A stock can be up 3% today but still be down 10% since you bought it at a higher price.
Your personal gain or loss depends on the price you paid. If you bought Apple at $150 and it closed today at $155, you are up $5 per share, regardless of whether Apple was up or down today. Your brokerage shows this as "unrealized gain" (if you still own it) or "realized gain" (if you sold it).
Why stocks move and what moves them
Stock prices move because buyers and sellers are constantly changing their minds about what a company is worth. When more people want to buy than sell, the price goes up. When more people want to sell than buy, the price goes down. The reasons people change their minds vary: a company reports earnings that beat or miss expectations, a competitor launches a new product, interest rates change, the economy slows down, or news breaks about the company's leadership or products.
On any given day, a stock might move because of company-specific news (the company announced a new product, or a lawsuit was filed) or market-wide news (the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, or inflation data came in higher than expected). Sometimes a stock moves for no clear reason at all — it is just the random back-and-forth of trading.
How to track stocks over time, not just today
If you want to see how a stock has performed over weeks, months, or years, financial websites let you view charts that show the price history. Most sites let you pick a time range: one day, one week, one month, three months, one year, or all-time. A chart shows you the price at each point in time, so you can see whether a stock has been climbing steadily, falling, or bouncing around.
Your brokerage account also tracks this for you. If you own a stock, you can usually click on it to see a chart of its price since you bought it, or since any date you choose. This is useful for understanding whether you bought near the top or the bottom, and whether the stock has recovered from a dip.
Market-wide moves versus individual stock moves
On some days, most stocks move in the same direction — the whole market is up or down. On other days, stocks move in different directions: some are up, some are down, and the overall market might be flat. When you hear "the market was up 1% today", that usually refers to a major index like the S&P 500, which tracks 500 large U.S. companies. An individual stock can be up or down regardless of what the index did.
If you own a diversified portfolio of many stocks or an ETF that holds many stocks, your portfolio's daily move will usually be close to the market's move. If you own a single stock, your daily move can be very different from the market's move.
After-hours trading and why most investors ignore it
After the market closes at 4 p.m. Eastern, some stocks continue to trade on after-hours exchanges until 8 p.m. Eastern. The price during after-hours trading can be different from the 4 p.m. closing price. However, after-hours trading involves far fewer buyers and sellers than regular trading, so prices can be less reliable and spreads (the difference between the buy and sell price) can be wider.
Most individual investors do not trade after hours because the risk is higher and the volume is lower. When you check "what stocks did today", the official answer is the 4 p.m. closing price, not the after-hours price. If a stock trades after hours and then opens at a different price the next morning, that gap will show up as a big move when the market opens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my stock show a different price on my brokerage than on Google?
The price should be the same, but there can be a delay. Google and other free sites may show a price that is 15 or 20 minutes old, while your brokerage shows the real-time price. If you are checking during market hours, wait a minute and refresh the page. After 4 p.m., both should show the same closing price.
Can I see what a stock did before the market opened?
Yes, if it traded after hours the day before. The price at 8 p.m. yesterday is different from the price at 9:30 a.m. today, and that gap shows up as a big move at the open. Most financial sites show this as a separate "pre-market" or "after-hours" move, separate from the regular trading day move.
What does it mean when a stock is "halted"?
Trading halts happen when the stock moves very fast in a short time, or when major news is about to be announced. The halt pauses trading for a few minutes to let the market absorb the news. During a halt, you cannot buy or sell, and the price does not move. Halts are rare for most stocks.
If a stock splits, does that change what it "did" today?
No. A stock split changes the number of shares you own and the price per share, but the total value stays the same. Financial sites adjust the historical price data to account for splits, so the daily change is calculated correctly. You will not see a fake 50% move just because the stock split 2-for-1.
Why do some stocks not show a price change even though I know they traded?
Stocks that trade very little volume sometimes close at the same price they closed at the day before, so the change shows as zero. This is common for very small companies or stocks that are thinly traded. The stock did trade during the day, but the opening and closing prices happened to be the same.