The space sector lit up Thursday as traders piled into publicly traded space names ahead of SpaceX‘s historic Nasdaq debut Friday morning — and the moves were anything but small.
- SPCE stock is soaring again. See the chart and price action here.
Space Stocks Rally
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ:MNTS) led the charge, surging 28.04% to $14.52 on volume of 10.7 million shares — more than double its average, per Benzinga Pro data.
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPCE) wasn’t far behind, rocketing 22.61% to $5.78 on a flood of retail-driven volume topping 62.9 million shares, nearly three times its daily average.
Voyager Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:VOYG) climbed 15.06% to $47.50, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ:FLY) added 13.41% to $37.90.
Intuitive Machines, Inc. (NASDAQ:LUNR) — one of NASA’s key commercial partners — jumped 12.09% to $29.74, a move that highlights how SpaceX’s IPO hype is lifting names with real government contract exposure.
EchoStar Corp. (NASDAQ:SATS) gained 8.83% to $125.41, while AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTS) rose 6.93% to $93.37 and Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) advanced 6.22% to $32.63. Rocket Lab Corp. (NASDAQ:RKLB) tacked on 4.92% to $110.22.
The SpaceX Catalyst
The catalyst is impossible to miss. SpaceX is set to price tonight at $135 per share — a fixed offering price the company set before its roadshow even launched last week — targeting a $75 billion raise and a valuation of approximately $1.78 trillion.
If achieved, it would be the largest IPO in stock market history, positioning SpaceX among the top 10 most valuable publicly traded companies on the planet.
With no direct pure-play hedge available, traders are rotating into the next-best thing.
Names like Intuitive Machines, AST and Rocket Lab offer genuine operational overlap with SpaceX — lunar logistics, satellite broadband and small-launch services, respectively.
Smaller, higher-beta names like Momentus and Virgin Galactic are catching the overflow enthusiasm from investors who missed SpaceX’s private run-up and are now chasing the space theme broadly.
IPO Details
The IPO is scheduled to begin trading Friday under the SPCX ticker on the Nasdaq.
Options don’t open until June 16, leaving investors with limited hedging tools in the near term. Market makers will begin matching orders Friday morning to set an opening print against that $135 offer price — and the sector’s performance Thursday suggests expectations are running high.
Whether that enthusiasm survives first-day price discovery is the question Wall Street will be watching closely.
Photo: Shutterstock
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