SpaceX Stock Drops 5% After Starship Launch Abort Ahead of First Earnings Report

Rocket Lab has booked 20 Electron launches for Synspective, a Japanese radar-imaging company, covering its StriX satellites between 2028 and 2031, in the company's largest Electron contract ever. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement brings Synspective's total Electron missions to 47, more than any other customer, and lifts Rocket Lab's overall backlog past 100 missions. Citi analyst John Godyn initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $105 price target one day after the contract was announced, calling the stock a core holding for space bulls, and the shares gained 4.7% in premarket trading on October 1. The stock trades at 43.51x forward sales, roughly 50% above its recent historical average of 28.96x, and even on 2029 earnings estimates its P/E stands at 108.88x, supported by forecast earnings growth of about 76% this year and 71% in 2029, along with $2.3 billion in cash against $133.69 million of debt. Hedge fund ownership rose from 43 funds at the end of Q1 2026 to 52 funds at the end of Q2 2026, while short interest remained elevated at 7.31% of float as of September 15, 2026.

Space Exploration Technologies completed Starship Flight 14 to low Earth orbit, deploying a batch of Starlink satellites. The company is in advanced talks with TSMC on an exclusive manufacturing arrangement for custom AI-focused semiconductor chips. Starlink also signed a new Direct to Cell partnership with Beeline Kazakhstan to extend satellite connectivity to standard mobile phones. The company, a US-based telecom player with a market cap of $2.3 trillion, faces an FAA review and has less than 1 year of cash runway. The Starship flight, the TSMC chip discussions and the Beeline Direct to Cell deal only show part of the SpaceX story.

Uber Technologies agreed to acquire Boston-based corporate catering platform ezCater for $2.3 billion in an all-cash deal, expanding the ride-hailing company into the workplace dining market. ezCater runs an online catering marketplace connecting businesses with more than 140,000 restaurants nationwide and generated over $2.5 billion in gross bookings over the trailing twelve months, with high-teens year-over-year growth. Separately, Marvell Technology shares jumped 10% in early trading after the chipmaker raised its fiscal 2028 revenue guidance to $20 billion at its investor day, up from a prior $18 billion and above analyst estimates of $18.2 billion; Marvell also expects customer revenue in fiscal 2029 to rise 200% or more, with total revenue reaching between $70 billion and $90 billion by fiscal 2031. Lamb Weston reported first-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.75, beating the $0.59 consensus, on sales up 1%, and raised its fiscal 2027 sales growth forecast to low single digits from flat to 1% while lifting its EPS outlook to $3.05 to $3.35. NASA is preparing to buy rocket launches in bulk to secure scarce capacity for a permanent human base on the moon, a $30 billion program, evaluating purchases of four or five launches at a time with an initial round expected soon, according to moon base program manager Carlos García-Galán.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who previously covered the auto sector and Tesla, has initiated coverage of SpaceX and called the stock cheap, according to Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi. Jonas's bullish case rests on five catalysts: the upcoming Starship flight 15, where the market wants to see a successful catch of the rocket's upper stage; third quarter earnings in a few weeks, which Jonas says could offer the first real look at the economics and adoption rates of SpaceX's internal AI services including Cursor and Grokbot; Starship flight 16, expected before year end if flight 15 does not demonstrate the catch; the releases of Grok 4.8, 4.9 and 5.0; and further Neo cloud deals. Sozzi also flagged reports this week that SpaceX might sign a leasing capacity deal with Microsoft, and said investors should watch whether the company can win more business from Anthropic.

Morgan Stanley raised its price target on SpaceX shares to $300 with a buy rating, sending SpaceX stock up nearly 8% on Monday, October 5, touching its highest level since mid-June and pushing Elon Musk's wealth back to $1 trillion. The new target is roughly 75% above Monday's closing price of $171.09. Analysts said the stock still looks cheap relative to its current price, supported by the launch of new AI products, progress on the Starship program, and Neocloud service contracts. The target increase follows several key SpaceX milestones, including last week's Starship rocket launch, a NASA astronaut mission to the International Space Station, and the delivery of Google AI chips into orbit. Analysts recommended that investors buy ahead of the next Starship rocket test and before third-quarter earnings, expected in late October, noting that if SpaceX succeeds in testing a robotic arm to catch the Starship upper stage as it returns to the launch pad, it could be the most significant catalyst since the IPO. SpaceX's AI business remains another driver, after its acquisition of Musk's xAI last year and its additional purchase of Cursor, with SpaceX able to generate revenue by renting computing capacity to companies such as Google and Anthropic.