Why Rocket Lab Stock Plummeted This Week
Key Points
Rocket Lab fell 25% this week as investors rotated out of space stocks.
Broader concerns about interest rate hikes and valuations for growth stocks also factored into the pullback.
Rocket Lab actually had two significant pieces of good news for investors this week.
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Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) stock got hit with another round of big sell-offs this week, falling 25.3% across the stretch. Over the same period, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2% and 4.6%, respectively.
While there wasn't any negative, business-specific news for Rocket Lab this week, its share price plummeted as investors moved out of space stocks and reacted to trends in the broader market. With this week's pullback, the stock is now down 44% from the lifetime high it hit earlier this year.
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Space stocks got hit hard this week
The broader stock market saw pronounced bearish momentum this week, and space stocks suffered particularly large pullbacks. Excitement surrounding the initial public offering of Space Exploration Technologies has dissipated, and investors made downward reassessments for valuations across the space industry.
Along with the bearish space stock trend, investors also sold out of many growth stocks in response to concerns that the Federal Reserve could be on track to raise interest rates. Despite the huge sell-off for Rocket Lab, there was actually some good news for the company this week.
Rocket Lab's business continued to make progress
Rocket Lab published a press release on Monday announcing that it had successfully completed the deployment of the Pioneer spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force's Victus Haze mission. The Pioneer was deployed with one of the company's Electron rockets, and the launch was completed within roughly 17 hours of receiving the order from Space Force -- setting a new record for space-mission response time.
The company then announced on Thursday that it had won a contract with NASA for three Electron rocket launches that will be used in the space organization's PoISIR and TSIS-2 missions early next year. The news actually caused a significant rally for Rocket Lab stock late in the week, but investors should move forward with the understanding that space stocks could continue to be highly volatile in the near term.
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Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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