SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) shares dropped 5% to $138.58 in early Monday trading, marking a fresh record low that falls below the stock’s $150 debut price and well off its $225 peak reached on June 16.
The decline extends a brutal stretch for the stock, which had already shed 10% over the prior week amid mounting pressure on high-growth space names.
Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) fell 4% to $78.10, while AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) slipped 5% to $69.82, with the Procure Space ETF (NYSEARCA: UFO) sliding 2% to $46.
A risk-off macro environment is driving much of the selling, as the Strait of Hormuz conflict lifted WTI crude oil prices and pushed the NASDAQ 100 down 1.09%, hitting high-beta, pre-profit names hardest.
WTI crude spiked 4.41% over the past 24 hours to $74.56 per barrel, squeezing investor appetite for speculative growth stocks across the board.
The headline catalyst for SpaceX specifically was China’s Long March 10B successfully landing a reusable first-stage booster on July 10, the country’s first orbital-class booster recovery using a sea-based net-and-hook platform.
Bernstein named China SpaceX’s “leading competitor” following the milestone, which punctures the narrative that reusability is a uniquely American competitive advantage in the global launch market.
Despite the competitive concern, Bernstein maintained an Outperform rating and a $239 price target, arguing SpaceX still leads by a wide margin with roughly 165 launches last year and nearly a decade of Falcon 9 reuse, while China has one landing and has not demonstrated booster reuse.
The Street average SPCX price target sits near $242, though Raymond James carries a notably high $800 target, reflecting the wide analyst dispersion on how to value a listed vehicle tied to a private operating business.
Rocket Lab’s decline came despite the company announcing full mission success on the U.S. Space Force VICTUS HAZE responsive-space demonstration, launching within 16 hours and 42 minutes of notice, a record turnaround for a responsive-space mission.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) carries a Buy rating and a $115 price target on Rocket Lab following the company’s latest acquisition plan, underscoring that analysts view the stock’s fundamentals as intact.
Rocket Lab shares have nonetheless shed 24% over the past month as the broader sector de-rated, despite strong year-over-year revenue growth and a substantial project backlog.
AST SpaceMobile is also declining despite its own positive developments, including receiving a New Zealand gateway license and having BlueBird 11 at Cape Canaveral ahead of an August launch.
The company is targeting 45 satellites by year-end and has agreements covering roughly 60 mobile operators, yet ASTS has given back 13% in the past week as oil-driven risk aversion hammers speculative growth names.
ASTS shares remain up 55% over the past year, illustrating how sharply the stock’s high beta cuts in both directions depending on the prevailing market mood.
The broader read-through is that today’s selloff reflects sector rotation and macro pressure rather than a fundamental downgrade, with SpaceX leading the drop on the China competition narrative and valuation fatigue.
Investors will be watching whether crude retreats, whether SPCX defends its debut price, and whether Bernstein or other analysts revisit their views on SpaceX following the Long March 10B data.
The UFO ETF remains a simple and effective gauge of whether today’s broad-based selloff deepens through the session or fades heading into the close.
