New York, June 21, 2026, 15:02 (EDT)
- Rocket Lab will be added to the Nasdaq-100 ahead of Monday’s open as U.S. markets return after the Juneteenth break.
- RKLB finished the week at $107.24, up roughly 4.7% from last Friday’s close. Shares remain far from their high in late May.
- SpaceX’s swings in the public market are still the main signal for Rocket Lab, Planet Labs and AST SpaceMobile.
Rocket Lab is set to start Monday as part of the Nasdaq-100, a move that puts the launch and space systems company in more big growth indexes. It follows a bumpy stretch for space stocks last week.
The timing is important. With U.S. markets shut Friday for Juneteenth and still closed Sunday, traders will have to react to the index change when Nasdaq opens Monday at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Nasdaq said Rocket Lab, Astera Labs, CoreWeave, Nebius and Teradyne will join the Nasdaq-100 before the start of trading on June 22.
Rocket Lab ended Thursday at $107.24, dropping 0.69% for the session. The shares moved between $100.96 and $109.55, with volume at about 70.3 million. Over the four-session week, the stock is up roughly 4.7% from last Friday’s $102.39 close.
Getting into the Nasdaq-100 doesn’t bring in new revenue. But it does shift who is forced to look. The Nasdaq-100 draws funds that copy the benchmark. These funds buy stocks to match the index. Nasdaq says over 200 investment products track the Nasdaq-100, with assets above $800 billion.
Rocket Lab CEO Sir Peter Beck called the move a “landmark moment” and said the company is being recognised next to “some of the world’s most innovative companies.” Rocket Lab said it has now done over 80 successful launches and put more than 250 satellites in orbit since it went public in 2021. GlobeNewswire
SpaceX moved the stock this week. SpaceX shares slid over 6% Thursday, Reuters said, giving back gains after their first-day rally. Rocket Lab and Planet Labs both shed about 3%. AST SpaceMobile lost roughly 7%. IPOX Schuster analyst Kat Liu told Reuters that “some degree of profit-taking is not surprising” after SpaceX’s big IPO run. Reuters
KeyBanc’s Michael Leshock didn’t agree that SpaceX’s recent news was a negative for Rocket Lab. Leshock called the space-stock slide “unwarranted,” saying the same forces boosting the sector “have only accelerated,” MarketWatch reported. He boosted Rocket Lab to overweight, flagging its Neutron rocket as a focus. MarketWatch
Execution remains the key question for the stock. Rocket Lab saw Q1 revenue hit $200.3 million, climbing 63.5% year over year, with the backlog hitting a record $2.2 billion. Beck in May said the company has “strong tailwinds,” pointing to demand for launches, hypersonics and national security work. Rocket Lab Corporation
Monday’s index entry could end up just a flow event, not a big move on fundamentals. RKLB trades almost 29% under its May 27 intraday peak of $151. Rocket Lab, for its part, says Neutron timing, launches, and its strategy remain forward-looking and risky. If SpaceX volatility keeps pressuring the sector, or if investors see the index move as priced in, the stock might lose this week’s gains fast.
Related articles: NASDAQ:RKLB
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