On July 17, SpaceX fell 3.71% in regular trading, trading at $125.45/share, with turnover of $25.3 billion. The stock continues to drift further below its $135 IPO price and has now retreated over 40% from its post-listing high of $225.64.

The immediate catalyst was the automatic abort of Starship's 13th flight test moments before liftoff at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas. Multiple Raptor engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence, triggering the vehicle's safety abort system. CEO Elon Musk confirmed the issue on X, stating the company will replace two Raptor engines and target a relaunch early next week. This marked SpaceX's first Starship launch attempt since its June IPO, and the unexpected failure dealt a significant blow to market confidence in the program's progress.

Compounding the pressure, short sellers have aggressively built positions. According to S3 Partners, approximately 185 million shares are now sold short, representing roughly 29% of the public float and totaling about $25 billion in short interest — up sharply from just 40 million shares three weeks ago. Short sellers have accumulated unrealized gains of nearly $3.9 billion.

(The above content is based on publicly available market information, generated by a program or algorithm, and is intended solely as a stock movement alert. It does not constitute investment advice or a basis for trading decisions.)