SpaceX hovers at IPO opening price as rival Blue Origin seeks $10B in fresh funding

A day after its shares dipped below its market debut price, SpaceX (SPCX) finds itself at a crossroads — and as rival Blue Origin shores up its capital position.

SpaceX is trading in range of that $150 offer price on Wednesday, but there is some concern among investors that the company's inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 didn't lead to a bump in price. 

The company's stock tumbled 7% yesterday; typically, addition into a major stock index would lead to buying from ETFs and mutual funds that track the index.

Some analysts and market strategists suggested that Nasdaq inclusion was already priced into the stock, and recent Nasdaq weakness wasn't helping matters. 

An onslaught of generally positive analyst coverage coming on Tuesday also didn't help SpaceX stock. Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman noted that of the 17 underwriters for SpaceX's IPO, 12 issued new coverage for the stock — with all 12 giving it a Buy or equivalent rating.

One of the more bullish calls came from Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley, who initiated SpaceX with an Overweight rating and a $300 price target.

Jonas argued that SpaceX could transform energy into intelligence (data centers using solar power) with "near-monopoly launch economics, the world's largest LEO (Low Earth Orbit) network, and a fast-scaling AI infrastructure business," Jonas said, fusing everything into "one infrastructure stack." 

Nevertheless, with most Wall Street price targets well in the $200+ range, SpaceX stock is struggling to push back above $200, which it last saw on June 16th.

As SpaceX enters its "post-honeymoon" phase with the markets, Blue Origin — one of its biggest rivals — is raising money.

The private rocket launch company backed by Amazon's (AMZN) Jeff Bezos is reportedly raising new money at a $130 billion valuation, the first public fundraise for the company.

As first reported by NYT's Dealbook, the $10 billion raise backed by Coatue Management ($4 billion), $4 billion from other large investors, and $2 billion from Bezos himself. Bezos had been funding Blue Origin himself over the past 25 years.

Though the fundraise is small in comparison to the $85 billion raised by SpaceX, the new money for Blue Origin speaks to the company's prospects and positioning within the space industry. 

The money comes despite a huge rocket setback earlier this year when one of Blue Origin's New Glenn rockets exploded during a static engine test, destroying the company's only launch pad. 

Despite, this, Bezos indicated earlier this year that timing was starting to make sense to raise outside capital.