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Virgin Galactic soars after boosting space tourism ticket prices to $750,000

Virgin had paused its space tourism program after a June 2024 flight in order to focus on building a better spacecraft.

Luke Kawa

Rocket ship, blastoff.

Virgin Galactic is jumping on Tuesday, with the stock up nearly 7% as of 7:18 a.m. ET, after the space tourism company said it’s ready to restart taking well-heeled customers to infinity and beyond, selling 50 slots for space travel at $750,000 apiece.

During its Q4 conference call on Monday, CEO Michael Colglazier said seats for company’s next tranche of availability would be priced even higher than that, and outlined plans to ramp space flights next year.

Virgin Galactic flight schedule
Source: company presentation

Virgin had paused its space tourism program after a June 2024 flight to focus on building a better spacecraft.

The news on ticket sales restarting helped boost the stock despite a middling set of Q4 results, which saw the company’s revenues come in a little lower than expected while its adjusted EBITDA loss was slimmer than feared.

The stock jumped as much as 25% in postmarket trading on Monday before paring those gains early on Tuesday morning. Other space-oriented stocks like Rocket Lab and AST SpaceMobile are also trading to the upside amid this new.

A warning of this price hike also prompted a rally in the past: shares of Virgin also soared in May 2025 when management said that the price of tickets would be rising from their prior level of $600,000.

Even with today’s gain, shares of the once hot SPAC IPO are down more than 99% from their 2021 peak.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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