Despite posting new major news, shares of the once red-hot SpaceX (SPCX) lost 12.6%. Earlier last week, investors pinned their hopes on a Starship launch for a stock rally. Instead, the company aborted the mission.
CEO Elon Musk said that some of the engines did not start. That triggered the launch to automatically abort.
SpaceX, whose company valuation is over 85% in AI and X (formerly Twitter), is not the only rocket and satellite stock that fell. Rocket Lab (RKLB) lost 16.6% last week and is down by 55.2% from its yearly high. AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) lost 21.2% on the week, while Planet Lab (PL) fell by 13.7% on the week.
SpaceX IPO buyers are likely panicking. In August, the quarterly earnings report release will follow with insider shares unlocking. Every few weeks, more shares will unlock. Shorts are betting that the flood of shares will sink the stock by even more. By comparison, the IPO benefited from shares being fourfold oversubscribed. The stock rallied above $225 because the company sold only 3-5% of the float.
Nasdaq’s (NDAQ) automatic inclusion of SPCX stock forced passive ETFs to buy shares. Retail investors now have a paper loss on the ~ 1.0% allocation in SpaceX. Now that the automatic buying tailwind is over, the stock has few catalysts to trigger more buying. That might lead to the stock falling below $100.00 in the coming months.
