Slips as Grantham Blasts SpaceX IPO as 'Craziest' Ever

Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SPCX) closed at $152.12 on July 9, 2026, up 2.58% ($3.82) from the prior close of $148.30, after opening at $150.45 and trading between an intraday low of $147.59 and a high of $153.50 on volume of 39,882,769 shares.

Executive Summary

SPCX rebounded from Wednesday's post-IPO closing low, gaining 2.58% to close at $152.12 after finding support near $147.59 and pushing as high as $153.50 intraday. The bounce came on a heavy day of conflicting commentary on the stock's valuation: Raymond James initiated coverage with an $800 price target implying more than 400% upside tied to speculative future businesses such as Earth-to-Earth cargo transport and space data centers, while veteran investor Jeremy Grantham used multiple appearances to call the SpaceX IPO the "craziest" he has seen and warned the stock could become a "landmark historical" collapse. Coverage also noted that SpaceX shares have fallen roughly 26% from their post-IPO highs, a decline reported to have cost Elon Musk his trillionaire status, with his net worth now estimated near $987 billion.

Other threads in the day's newsflow included a recap of SpaceX's first quarter as a public company, showing a $4.28 billion loss on $4.7 billion in revenue with roughly $7.7 billion of the company's $10.1 billion in quarterly capital expenditure directed toward AI infrastructure, and a report citing a Morgan Stanley estimate flagging nearly $672 billion in funding needs with no positive cash flow expected until 2035. None of this newsflow changes the session's price record: after Wednesday's slide to a post-IPO low, SPCX recovered a portion of that decline today, though the close remains 12.68% above the $135.00 IPO offer price and 5.49% below the $160.95 first-day close.

News

1. 'Cursor Is Developing An AI Agent To Compete With Claude Cowork' - The Information

(Benzinga, Jul 9, 3:58 PM ET)

2. PPA vs ARKX Aerospace ETF Showdown: Which ETF Is the High Flier for 2026?

The article compares two aerospace and defense ETFs: Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF (PPA), a passively managed fund focused on traditional defense contractors with lower costs and higher long-term returns, and ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX), an actively managed fund with higher volatility that concentrates on space technology innovation. While PPA offers stability and lower fees, ARKX has delivered stronger recent returns, making the choice dependent on investor risk tolerance and confidence in active management. (The Motley Fool, Jul 9, 3:20 PM ET)

3. 7 Communication Services Stocks With Whale Alerts In Today’s Session

This whale alert can help traders discover the next big trading opportunities. Whales are entities with large sums of money and we track their transactions here at Benzinga on our options activity scanner. Traders often (Benzinga, Jul 9, 1:35 PM ET)

4. One Wall Street Analyst Sees More than 400% Upside in SpaceX Stock. Why I'm Still Not Buying.

Raymond James initiated coverage of SpaceX with an $800 price target, implying over 400% upside based on speculative future businesses like Earth-to-Earth cargo transport and space data centers. However, the analyst argues this valuation is unrealistic, as it values SpaceX at over $10 trillion despite current operating losses, and the company faces significant technical, regulatory, and economic hurdles to realize these ambitious projects. (The Motley Fool, Jul 9, 1:05 PM ET)

5. Nasdaq 'Cheated and Changed the Laws' to Fit SpaceX in, Famed Investor Jeremy Grantham Says

Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham speaks out about the rule changes the Nasdaq made to get SpaceX into the Nasdaq 100 quicker. (Benzinga, Jul 9, 12:21 PM ET)

6. BlackRock Just Took The Fight To QQQ — The Nasdaq‑100 ETF War Is On

The race to dominate one of Wall Street's most popular ETF categories is heating up thanks to BlackRock's new Nasdaq 100 ETF. (Benzinga, Jul 9, 11:42 AM ET)

7. Elon Musk Lost His Trillionaire Status as SpaceX Shares Dropped 26%. Are Tesla and SpaceX Stock Still a Buy?

SpaceX stock has dropped 26% from its post-IPO highs, causing Elon Musk to lose his trillionaire status. His net worth is now approximately $987 billion. Both Tesla and SpaceX are trading at expensive valuations with concerning fundamentals—Tesla at 368x trailing earnings with shrinking profits, and SpaceX at 110x sales with significant net losses. The article suggests neither stock appears to be a bargain at current prices. (The Motley Fool, Jul 9, 11:15 AM ET)

8. Legendary Investor Jeremy Grantham Calls SpaceX IPO 'Craziest' Ever: 'You'll Be Laughing at It'

Jeremy Grantham says the world will remember the SpaceX IPO 50 years from now. The question is if that is a good or bad thing for investors. (Benzinga, Jul 9, 11:12 AM ET)

Price Action

Metric	Value
Open	$150.45
High	$153.50
Low	$147.59
Close	$152.12
Change vs prior close	+2.58% (+$3.82)
Volume	39,882,769
Intraday range	$5.91
Close vs IPO offer ($135.00)	+12.68%

SPCX opened at $150.45, dipped toward its session low of $147.59 early on, then pushed higher through the day to a high of $153.50 before settling at $152.12. The close sits about 77% of the way up from the day's low, meaning the stock spent the bulk of the session in the upper half of its range. Volume of 39,882,769 shares was well below both the average volume-to-date of 159,751,873 (roughly 25% of that average) and the prior session's volume of 61,108,011, indicating today's rebound came on lighter-than-typical participation. Today's close reclaims both Tuesday's $149.47 finish and Wednesday's $148.30 post-IPO closing low, but remains below the $153.00-$156.11 zone where closes clustered during the June 22-26 stretch, as well as the short-term moving averages that still sit above current price.

Takeaway: SPCX snapped a two-session slide with a 2.58% bounce off its post-IPO closing low, but did so on volume well below its recent average, leaving the rebound's conviction in question.

Technicals

SPCX has traded for roughly four weeks since its June 12, 2026 IPO. With this limited history, the SMA-20, SMA-50, and SMA-200 are not yet computable (each is marked unavailable in the underlying data) and should not be treated as meaningful. The 14-day RSI is technically computable at this point but still reflects a short lookback relative to how the reading is typically used, so it should be read as an early, noisy signal rather than a settled measure of momentum. The discussion below leans on price structure, candle shape, volume, and the moving averages that are actually available (SMA-5, EMA-5, SMA-10).

Trend

The available short-term moving averages all sit above today's close: EMA-5 at $153.60, SMA-5 at $154.46, and SMA-10 at $157.11, with price at $152.12 trading below all three despite today's bounce. That keeps SPCX in a short-term downtrend on the only trend measures the data currently supports, even though today's session snapped a slide to new post-IPO lows. The stock remains well below its June 16 closing high of $201.80 and its June 30 closing high of $170.86, and while today's close is an improvement on Wednesday's $148.30 post-IPO low, it has not yet recovered the $153.00-$156.11 zone where closes clustered during the June 22-26 stretch.

Candle read

Today's candle has a body of 1.68 (close above open, a bullish/green body), an upper wick of 1.38, and a lower wick of 2.85 — roughly twice the size of the upper wick — on a total range of 5.91. The closeLocation of 0.77 confirms the close finished in the upper portion of the day's range, about 77% of the way up from the low. Read together, this is a green-bodied candle with a longer lower shadow than upper shadow: price was pushed down to $147.59 intraday, buying interest emerged, and the session closed near its high. The pattern suggests intraday demand at lower levels translated into a net constructive session, though the close still sits below the short-term moving-average cluster.

Support levels

• $148.30 — Wednesday's close and prior post-IPO closing low, the first level below today's close
• $147.59 — today's intraday low, closely coinciding with the prior post-IPO low and reinforcing this area as a support zone
• $135.00 — the IPO offer price, the next real level down in the available data, with no other documented level between it and the $147.59-$148.30 zone

Resistance levels

• $153.50 — today's intraday high
• $153.60 to $157.11 — the EMA-5/SMA-5/SMA-10 cluster, all currently above price
• $160.95 — the first-day (IPO) closing price, a longer-term reference level well above current trade

Momentum interpretation

Bull scenario: a push above today's $153.50 high, followed by a reclaim of the $153.60-$157.11 moving-average cluster, would suggest the slide into Wednesday's $148.30 low is over and open a retest of the $160.95 first-day close.

Bear scenario: a break back below today's $147.59 low and the $148.30 prior close would put Wednesday's post-IPO low back in play, with no further documented support until the $135.00 IPO offer price.

Neutral scenario: continued consolidation between the $147.59-$148.30 support zone and the $153.50 high/moving-average resistance, consistent with an RSI-14 reading of 46.99 — inside neutral territory, neither overbought above 70 nor oversold below 30 — pointing to indecision rather than a strong directional signal, though this early in the stock's history that reading carries limited weight.

Trading Takeaway

SPCX bounced 2.58% off Wednesday's post-IPO closing low, closing at $152.12 after trading as low as $147.59, though the rebound came on volume well below both its average-to-date pace and the prior session's turnover — a sign the move was not accompanied by heavy conviction buying. Price remains below every short-term moving average currently available (SMA-5, EMA-5, SMA-10), keeping the short-term trend down even after today's recovery, while the stock holds well above the $135.00 IPO offer price. For the next session, the key levels to watch are $147.59 and the $148.30 prior close on the downside, with the $135.00 IPO offer price as the next documented level below that, and $153.50 followed by the $153.60-$157.11 moving-average cluster on the upside as the levels that would need to be reclaimed to challenge the current downtrend.

Sources

1. 'Cursor Is Developing An AI Agent To Compete With Claude Cowork' - The Information — Benzinga
2. PPA vs ARKX Aerospace ETF Showdown: Which ETF Is the High Flier for 2026? — The Motley Fool
3. 7 Communication Services Stocks With Whale Alerts In Today's Session — Benzinga
4. One Wall Street Analyst Sees More than 400% Upside in SpaceX Stock. Why I'm Still Not Buying. — The Motley Fool
5. Nasdaq 'Cheated and Changed the Laws' to Fit SpaceX in, Famed Investor Jeremy Grantham Says — Benzinga
6. BlackRock Just Took The Fight To QQQ — The Nasdaq‑100 ETF War Is On — Benzinga
7. Elon Musk Lost His Trillionaire Status as SpaceX Shares Dropped 26%. Are Tesla and SpaceX Stock Still a Buy? — The Motley Fool
8. Legendary Investor Jeremy Grantham Calls SpaceX IPO 'Craziest' Ever: 'You'll Be Laughing at It' — Benzinga
9. Jim Cramer Warns SK Hynix Bankers Are Playing a 'Dangerous Game' As Oversubscribed $28 Billion ADR Deal Nears Pricing — Benzinga
10. Nvidia-Backed Starcloud's CEO Says SpaceX IPO Could Be 'Most Undervalued IPO of All Time' and Tear Through $10 Trillion — Benzinga
11. SpaceX Going Public Is Not a Reason to Abandon Rocket Lab — The Motley Fool
12. SpaceX Could Become a 'Landmark Historical' Collapse, Warns Top Investor: 'In The End, The Reality Will Come Out' — Benzinga
13. Rocket One Adds SpaceXAI API To Its Technology Stack After Acceptance Into SpaceXAI's Proprietary Program — Benzinga
14. A Tesla-SpaceX Merger Just Got A $1.77 Trillion Catalyst, JPMorgan Says — Benzinga
15. Elon Musk's Grok 4.5 Could Rewrite Enterprise AI Economics — Benzinga
16. Trump Accounts Could Attract $100 Billion in New Private Commitments, Brad Gerstner Predicts: 'We Have Tens of Billions… We Haven't Announced' — Benzinga
17. Anthropic's IPO Will Lead to Windfall Profits for These 3 Early Investors — The Motley Fool
18. Jeff Bezos' SpaceX Rival Blue Origin Seeks $10 Billion Raise at $130 Billion Valuation: Report — Benzinga
19. Trump Praises SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell's 'Extreme Generosity' After Her $325 Million Trump Accounts Stock Donation — Benzinga
20. Jim Chanos Highlights Morgan Stanley's $672 Billion Funding Warning on Elon Musk's SpaceX — Benzinga
21. SpaceX Lost $4.28 Billion on $4.7 Billion in Revenue Last Quarter. Here's What's Going On. — The Motley Fool
22. Elon Musk's $1.5 Million SEC Settlement Wins Court Approval Even as Judge Has 'Significant Misgivings' Amid 'Red Flags' — Benzinga
23. Trump Accounts Customer Growth 'Faster' Than America's 'Most Successful and Dynamic' Tech Companies, Says Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev — Benzinga
24. Alpaca Markets (SIP) — market data

Disclaimer

This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Market data and news summaries are drawn from the sources cited above and may contain errors, omissions, or delays. SPCX has a limited trading history, and technical indicators requiring longer lookback periods are not yet available or should be interpreted with caution. Readers should verify all data independently and consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.