Rocket Lab is set to join the Nasdaq 100, and excitement around the SpaceX IPO is adding to the momentum. Shares rose 7.6% in premarket trading on Friday after Nasdaq said the rocket-launch company would be added to the index before markets open on June 22 as part of the quarterly rebalancing. Here’s a look at the other companies joining the index and why Rocket Lab’s stock jumped more than the rest.
Four other companies will join the Nasdaq 100 with Rocket Lab. Astera Labs, a chip maker, rose 4.3% in premarket trading. Cloud computing firms CoreWeave and Nebius were up 4.4% and 5.3%, and chip testing equipment maker Teradyne gained 1.2%. All five companies will be added before the market opens on June 22.
Rocket Lab’s big jump is due to more than just joining the index. SpaceX will start trading on Friday after raising $75 billion in its IPO, and investors have been buying up space-sector stocks ahead of its debut. Rocket Lab’s stock is up 352% over the past year, mostly because of excitement about SpaceX going public.
The link between these two stocks could affect both in the future. SpaceX’s IPO values the company at about $1.8 trillion, which means its price-to-sales ratio is around 35. Rocket Lab trades at nearly 60 times sales, much higher than the new benchmark set by SpaceX’s public listing. If investors use SpaceX as a guide for valuing space companies, Rocket Lab’s higher valuation might come under pressure to move closer to that standard over time.
