Key Highlights
- SpaceX (SPCX) shares declined over 6% on Thursday, marking the second consecutive day of losses following a three-session rally
- Despite the recent downturn, shares remain more than 30% higher than the $135 initial public offering price
- Individual investors had been aggressively accumulating SPCX shares since launch, with net buying exceeding $300 million across three trading sessions
- Investment bankers are organizing a bond issuance valued at no less than $20 billion, marking SpaceX’s inaugural investment-grade dollar bond
- Other aerospace-related equities declined as well, including AST SpaceMobile which fell approximately 7%
SpaceX (SPCX) shares finished Thursday’s regular session down over 3%, with after-hours trading pushing losses beyond 6% to $178.50. The stock had jumped more than 19% during its initial trading session following last Friday’s public listing, beginning at $150 compared to the $135 offer price.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX
Based on its present trading level, SpaceX commands a market capitalization of approximately $2.52 trillion. Continued weakness could wipe out over $150 billion in shareholder value.
The pullback follows three consecutive sessions dominated by individual investor purchases since the company’s public debut. According to Vanda Research, SPCX ranked as the top stock purchased by retail traders for three days straight.
“Retail investors have bought roughly the same amount of SPCX over the last 3 sessions as they have bought NVDA, GOOGL, AMZN, MSFT, META, QQQ and SPY combined,” Vanda said.
That figure is genuinely remarkable.
Individual investor participation, though, noticeably declined on Thursday, seemingly pressuring the stock even as broader equity indexes posted gains.
Investors Lock In Gains Following Historic Launch
IPOX Schuster analyst Kat Liu characterized the retreat as expected considering the offering’s massive scale.
“Given the magnitude of the IPO and the strong initial performance, some degree of profit-taking is not surprising,” Liu said.
She added: “This has been a particularly eventful and shortened trading week for the largest IPO in history.”
The selloff ended a three-session winning run that had temporarily elevated SpaceX among the world’s five most valuable corporations, crossing the $2 trillion threshold.
Additional space-sector stocks also experienced declines Thursday. Rocket Lab and Planet Labs each fell about 3%, while AST SpaceMobile tumbled roughly 7% and Intuitive Machines shed around 3%.
Upcoming Bond Offering and Cursor Deal Command Attention
Beyond daily price movements, two significant corporate actions are capturing market focus.
Bloomberg disclosed Thursday that investment banks are arranging investor presentations potentially starting next week for a bond sale expected to reach at least $20 billion. This transaction would represent SpaceX’s first investment-grade dollar-denominated bond and targets refinancing a bridge facility maturing in 2027.
Earlier this week, SpaceX announced its intention to acquire Anysphere — creator of the AI programming assistant Cursor — in a $60 billion stock transaction, designed to strengthen its position in the enterprise artificial intelligence software sector.
Vanda Research observed that SPCX is beginning to exhibit trading characteristics similar to “Magnificent Seven” stocks, referring to its elevated retail participation and price volatility.
Given a comparatively limited publicly traded share count and stretched valuation metrics, market observers and fund managers had previously anticipated early price instability. Thursday’s trading confirmed those expectations.
SPCX settled at $185.00 during Wednesday’s close before extended-hours trading drove it down to $178.50.
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