SpaceX stock touched $111 on Thursday morning, July 23, its lowest point since the June IPO, as a relentless sell-off stripped roughly $1 trillion from the company's peak valuation and shaved $35.2 billion off Elon Musk's net worth in a single day.
At 11:30 a.m. EDT, shares were changing hands near $111, down from Wednesday's close of $115.26 and about 18% below the $135 IPO price. The intraday range ran from $110.99 to $116.80. That's a far cry from the euphoria of June 16, when SPCX briefly hit $225.64 and briefly pushed the company's market cap above $2.6 trillion. Thursday's price cuts that figure to roughly $1.5 trillion, a drop of about 51% from the all-time high in just over five weeks.
The IPO itself was historic. SpaceX raised $85.7 billion after underwriters exercised their overallotment option, making it the largest public offering ever recorded. Shares opened at $150 on June 12 and finished the first session at $160.95, up 19.2% on the day. The reversal since then has been equally dramatic. From July 15's close of $135.27, the stock fell almost every session: $131.11, then $123.99, then $119.85. A brief bounce to $123.54 on Tuesday gave way to a 6.7% drop Wednesday and further losses Thursday.
Short Sellers and a Tight Float
Bears have done well. Ortex Technologies put paper profits from short positions at around $15.5 billion following the decline. According to Reuters, roughly 360 million shares, about 56% of the freely tradable float, were on loan to short sellers. The limited public float was a double-edged factor: it amplified the initial surge by making shares scarce, then amplified the fall once profit-taking began and investors started questioning a valuation that approached 40 times estimated 2026 sales. Compare that to Lockheed Martin and RTX, which jumped as much as 9% on blowout Q2 earnings the same week, underscoring how differently the defense and commercial space sectors are trading right now.
Operational news added to the pressure. SpaceX aborted Starship's 13th test flight on July 16 after four of the Super Heavy booster's 33 Raptor engines failed to meet ignition requirements. The flight computer cancelled the launch less than a second before liftoff. Musk said two engines would be replaced. The company rescheduled the attempt for Thursday evening, with a 90-minute window starting later that day.
One more overhang is coming. SpaceX may unlock 911.5 million additional shares following its August 4 earnings report, which would substantially expand the float and further test demand at current prices.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.
