New York, June 18, 2026, 19:01 (EDT)
- Rocket Lab ended at $107.24, down 0.7%, after a wide session with about 70.3 million shares traded.
- The stock’s next regular session comes Monday, as Nasdaq is closed Friday for Juneteenth and Rocket Lab is due to enter the Nasdaq-100 before the open.
- SpaceX’s post-IPO pullback kept pressure on the space trade, even as KeyBanc turned more bullish on Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab Corporation shares slipped on Thursday after a volatile, heavy-volume session, as investors weighed its looming Nasdaq-100 entry against fresh pressure from SpaceX’s post-IPO retreat. The stock finished at $107.24, down 0.7%, after trading between $101.12 and $110.98.
The timing matters. Thursday was the last regular U.S. equity session before the Juneteenth market holiday, and Rocket Lab is scheduled to join the Nasdaq-100 before trading opens Monday. The Nasdaq-100 is the index of the largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq; index inclusion can force funds that track it to buy a stock, though that buying says little by itself about the company’s earnings power.
That mechanical support met a colder market signal from the space sector. SpaceX fell to $185, down 3.5%, extending its pullback after a blockbuster debut that had briefly turned the newly public company into the market’s main reference point for commercial space valuations.
Reuters reported earlier Thursday that IPOX Schuster analyst Kat Liu said “some degree of profit-taking is not surprising” after SpaceX’s sharp first-week move. Analysts and portfolio managers also warned that SpaceX could remain volatile because of its high valuation and limited public float, the portion of shares available to trade. Reuters
The broader tape was not the problem. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.91% on Thursday, while the S&P 500 gained 1.08%, helped by chip stocks and easing oil worries; “triple witching,” the simultaneous expiry of stock options, index options and futures, also lifted market volume. Reuters
Wall Street’s split view showed up in the calls. KeyBanc analyst Michael Leshock upgraded Rocket Lab to Overweight and set a $135 price target, calling the company “the clear #2 to SPCX” and also turning bullish on Firefly Aerospace, another launch-services peer. Investing.com
Rocket Lab has its own index story. Founder and Chief Executive Sir Peter Beck called the Nasdaq-100 inclusion a “landmark moment” and said it showed the “growing importance of the space economy.” The company said it has completed more than 80 successful launches and deployed more than 250 satellites. GlobeNewswire
The fundamental case rests on growth, not the index badge. Rocket Lab reported first-quarter revenue of $200.3 million, up 63.5% from a year earlier, and backlog of $2.2 billion; backlog means contracted work not yet booked as revenue. It also said it signed 31 Electron and HASTE contracts and five dedicated Neutron launch deals in the quarter.
But the downside case is plain enough. Rocket Lab still posted a first-quarter net loss of $45.0 million, or 7 cents a share, and Neutron, its medium-lift rocket for larger payloads, remains in development. The company itself warned that statements about launch schedules, Neutron and future operations are forward-looking and subject to risks.
The next test comes Monday. Index funds may add demand, but the cleaner question is whether buyers treat Thursday’s weakness as a pause before passive inflows, or as a sign that Rocket Lab’s valuation now has to clear a tougher bar with SpaceX trading in public view.
