Investors Are All-In On Space Stocks After SpaceX IPO

Space and satellite-related stocks soared Tuesday as investor enthusiasm around the industry intensified following last week’s SpaceX initial public offering. Shares of space infrastructure company Redwire jumped 26%, satellite broadband communication company AST SpaceMobile surged 13% and rocket and spacecraft maker Firefly Aerospace rose 19%.

Growing excitement around the burgeoning space economy is increasingly favoring companies positioned to benefit not only from SpaceX’s debut, but also from rising enthusiasm for space exploration and increased funding.

A Bank of America basket of US companies that are key players and potential beneficiaries of the space race has climbed 61% this year. The gauge had its biggest one-day gain since April of last year. Meanwhile, the Procure Space ETF, a fund with a market value of about $1 billion, has gained about 69% so far this year. —Jordan Parker Erb

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BP fired Chairman Albert Manifold just months into the job due to serious concerns about “governance standards, oversight and conduct,” prolonging a period of turmoil at the UK oil major. BP has had three chief executives in as many years. The latest sudden departure raises fresh questions about the company’s processes at a time when it is seeking to turn around years of poor performance, rebuild its balance sheet and focus on its core oil and gas business. Manifold’s removal consolidates the authority of Meg O’Neill—Big Oil’s first female CEO and BP’s first external hire for the top job—who joined on April 1.

Renewed White House claims of a peace deal ending the US-Israel war with Iran were thrown into doubt by fresh hostilities, including a US attack near the Strait of Hormuz it said was defensive in nature. Global benchmark Brent rose to trade around $100 a barrel.

Stocks nevertheless rose toward a record as hopes for a deal appeared to overshadow the renewed fighting, including in southern Lebanon, where Israel is expanding its ongoing invasion despite a cease fire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to step up attacks against Iran-aligned Hezbollah. The Lebanese government says Israeli bombing has killed more than 3,100 people there since the war began three months ago.

The Trump administration reached an agreement with Volvo Car AB that will allow the automaker to avoid a US ban on connected vehicles tied to China. Volvo, which is majority-owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, received a specific authorization from the US Commerce Department allowing it to continue importing and selling connected passenger vehicles in the US, the automaker said Tuesday.

The US ban on connected vehicles and related hardware and software technology with ties to China takes effect starting with the 2027 model year. Volvo’s Chinese ownership had raised questions about how the company would be affected by the policy, including whether it could potentially be barred from selling its vehicles in the US.

Qualcomm is said to have reached a deal with TikTok owner ByteDance to supply chips for artificial intelligence data centers, marking a key win for a company trying to expand from smartphone processors into AI infrastructure. ByteDance is set to procure millions of Qualcomm chips known as application-specific integrated circuits, which will help support the social media company’s AI agent software. The partnership could provide Qualcomm a key opportunity: a high-volume customer and a path into one of the fastest-growing segments of the semiconductor industry.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is seeking volunteers from its workforce to help screen for Ebola at domestic airports as the deadly viral outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda intensifies. The request comes after the US placed travel restrictions on people who’ve recently visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan. US authorities have directed flights with American-citizen passengers who have traveled in these nations in the past three weeks to one of three domestic airports for screenings.

Congo has become the epicenter of a growing outbreak that’s strained public health systems and sparked an international response to contain the spread. The nation has reported 101 confirmed Ebola infections, 930 suspected cases and 221 suspected deaths, according to Monday data from the health ministry.

Lisa Jarvis wrote in Bloomberg Opinion that several factors have played a role in the new outbreak. A long lag in detecting the virus allowed it to spread for weeks unchecked; there are no approved vaccines or treatments for the strain of Ebola; and the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID and foreign health aid.

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