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# McDonald's US sales fell for the first time in six quarters, and the shares went up
- URL: https://www.sharespective.com/stories/mcdonalds-us-sales-fell-first-time-2026-11-05/
- Published: 2026-11-04T22:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-04T22:50:44.000Z
- Description: Sales at McDonald's American restaurants open at least a year fell 0.2% in the September quarter. That ends five straight quarters of growth, and the shares rose about 6% on the day.
- Author: Shaun Botha
- Tags: Restaurants, #story, #group-other, McDonald's

Sales at McDonald's American restaurants open at least a year fell 0.2% in the September quarter. That ends five straight quarters of growth, and the shares rose about 6% on the day.

**The fall was smaller than the market had braced for.** Analysts had expected 0.5%. Adjusted earnings were US$3.57 a share against the US$3.38 forecast, and operating income rose 7% to US$3.60 billion.

Revenue was the miss. It grew 1% to US$7.16 billion, short of the roughly US$7.29 billion expected. Sales in the licensed markets that include Japan and China grew 4.2%, which carried the quarter.

![Chart: McDonald's revenue grew. Its value stood still. Two scales, both US$bn: yearly revenue on the left; market value at each year end, and now, on the right. Revenue rose from 23.2 to 26.9.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/02/71/0271df32-cec6-421f-9f13-b06ab90e54c1/content/images/2026/11/mcdonalds-us-sales-fell-first-time-2026-11-05-chart.jpg)

This story’s chart of the day.

The whole sector is quiet. Foot traffic across American fast food fell 2.6% over the three months. Chris Kempczinski, the chief executive, put the result down to solid trading across much of the international business.

The catch 

a gain about four times the market's is generous for a quarter in which American customers came in less often. Margins held up because the average order got bigger, and that works only while people keep trading up.

[ This story ran in The Gridlock Rally Thursday 5 November’s edition, with the market snapshot, the other two stories, the numbers and the week ahead. Read the whole edition → ](https://www.sharespective.com/sharespective-2026-11-05/)