NEW YORK, Jan 3, 2026, 16:10 ET — Market closed
- Rigetti closed up 6.6% on Friday at $23.60, with the first trading session of 2026 ending in a tech-led rebound.
- A company director filed a Form 144 on Friday to sell 59,316 shares, a notice of a proposed sale under SEC Rule 144.
- Investors head into next week focused on U.S. jobs data (Jan. 9) and inflation prints (Jan. 13), with Rigetti’s next earnings date widely tracked for early March.
Rigetti Computing shares rose 6.6% on Friday to close at $23.60, after trading between $21.62 and $24.00 as volume topped 37 million shares.
The move mattered because it put a speculative, high-beta quantum name back in focus as U.S. equities started 2026 with a rebound led by chip stocks. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index gained 4% on Friday, Reuters reported.
It also came as investors weighed insider-sale paperwork filed after the close, a common pressure point for retail-heavy stocks where sentiment can shift quickly on filings and headlines.
A Form 144 filing showed director Alissa Fitzgerald listed a proposed sale of 59,316 Rigetti shares, with an aggregate market value of about $1.31 million, through broker Piper Sandler & Co.
Form 144 is a notice of a proposed sale of restricted or control securities under SEC Rule 144; it signals intent but does not confirm the sale has occurred.
Quantum computing peers also advanced on Friday. IonQ rose about 4%, while D-Wave Quantum and Quantum Computing Inc gained roughly 7% each, based on last prices.
Broader risk appetite improved into the weekend. Joe Mazzola, head of trading & derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab, described the tape as “buy the dip, sell the rip,” as investors stepped back into volatile growth names. Reuters
Rigetti, which builds superconducting quantum processors and provides access to its systems through a cloud platform, has been a magnet for momentum traders alongside the small group of publicly traded quantum pure plays.
Before the next session, macro data is likely to set the tone. Reuters’ week-ahead calendar flagged the U.S. jobs report due Jan. 9 as a key potential volatility trigger, with CPI due Jan. 13 and earnings season ramping up shortly after.
For Rigetti specifically, investors are watching for the next earnings update, which analyst calendars generally peg for early March (projected around March 4) as the company heads into results season for its December quarter.
Traders will also watch whether Friday’s breakout holds: $24 marks the session high and a nearby resistance area, while $21.62 is the day’s low and a near-term support level.
Any follow-on SEC filings around insider transactions could get disproportionate attention given the stock’s elevated turnover and the sector’s sensitivity to sentiment at the start of 2026.
