Space stocks rally on ‘Trump-Alon trade’, analysts say

This past week has seen several pure play space stocks rally, with leaders up 20 percent or more, in part due to what sector analysts call a “Trump-Alone trade” that President-elect Donald It refers to the relationship between Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

“I don’t think anyone can discount the potential catalyst that I don’t think a lot of people were talking about before: the most important person in the history of the space industry who has been elected president, who has Space is important enough to create a separate branch of the military in the past,” said Andrew Channon, CEO of Procure AM, which voice space-focused ETF, told CNBC.

Just watched this week Rocket Lab A 41 percent increase Intuitive machines 28 percent increase, Spire Global A 26 percent increase Planet Labs A 16 percent increase Rewiring 15 percent more AST Space Mobile up to 10%.

These gains were partially offset by third-quarter results and individual updates, such as Rocket Lab’s progress on Neutron and Sale of Spire of your maritime business to pay off debt.

But there’s a broader market sentiment driving those stocks as well, said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Shepard, who gave buy ratings on RocketLab, RedWire and Intuitive Machines.

“I think the rally after Trump’s win is definitely a risk that’s showing up in this industry,” Shepard told CNBC.

Step back even further to take a one-year historical perspective, and this week’s top-performing space stocks have tripled or even quadrupled since the SPAC crash in 2024.

“This year has been one of the best performers in the space market for these handful of names,” Shepard said.

“We are seeing a big increase in investor inflows,” he continued. “We’re getting calls and emails from institutional investors, who are finally starting to understand that this market is only going to boom. It’s only going to continue to boom because of national security, because Astronauts returned to the moon thanks to Elon, the United States, due to the Artemis program. [Musk]Ambitious goals to reach Mars.”

Sheppard stressed that Musk’s company SpaceX being privately held means investors are turning to other companies for exposure to the space sector. Likewise, ProcureAM’s Chanin believes that SpaceX’s dominant position in rocket launch and satellite broadband actually helps companies that have spacecraft looking for a ride into orbit.

“They all benefit from the low cost of access to space,” Channon said.

Notably, this week has also seen a split between pure play space stocks. New companies that have gone public in the past few years while older “legacy” players have slipped away, e.g Echo Star And Vyasatboth down more than 10% this week.

Alex King, CEO of Cistercian Capital Research, said the space represents a changing of the guard between generations of space companies.

“The need for any of these legacy businesses is diminishing. … What you’re seeing in the space, I think, is a slow evolution of what happens in tech, where it happens really quickly, which “The lowest price always wins in the end,” said King.

“I think one of the market factors is working out which of these companies are here to stay and which aren’t,” King added.

Despite big year-to-date gains by top space actors, Sheppard doesn’t see the sector slowing down anytime soon.

“Overall sentiment has been very bullish and continues to be bullish despite better performance,” Shepard said.

That’s consistent with the views of RocketLab CEO Peter Beck, who said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call this week that he expects the incoming Trump administration to maintain the industry’s momentum. “Very strong focus on location” will be given.

“When space wins, Rocket Lab wins,” Beck said.