Individual investors eager for a piece of SpaceX’s mega IPO on Friday scrutinized their e-mail inboxes and brokerage accounts to see just how big a slice of the pie they received – while others went straight to the open market to scoop them up on day one.

From the start, SpaceX and its underwriters had determined to set aside as much as 30% of the shares sold to the ‌public in the IPO for ⁠retail investors. ⁠That meant that whipping up interest and buying orders from this group was crucial. Getting an allocation to the stock was competitive, and some retail investors just dived into the market to buy.

“I’m very happy with what I managed to get,” said Joseph Gutheinz, who retired from NASA as an investigator to practice law. Gutheinz did not think of trying to submit an IPO allocation request but managed to buy $100,000 of shares at $161 on Friday.

“It’s a great investment,” he said. “Win or lose, I’m happy to be invested at all.”

Retail buying was one of the factors responsible for the pop in the price of SpaceX shares, which surged 19% on their first day of trading, said Art Hogan, investment strategist at B. Riley Wealth in Boston.

“This allocation to retail is far ⁠and away ‌the highest I’ve ever seen in my decades on Wall Street,” Hogan said. “It’s the latest, greatest shiny object for retail investors to get into right now.”
The deal became “the largest and most subscribed offering on our platform to date,” said a spokesman for SoFi, one of ⁠the retail brokerages involved in the selling group. The spokesman added that all individuals who met SoFi’s criteria received an allocation of the deal. Net buying of SpaceX shares accounted for about 4% of all single-stock retail turnover on Friday, totaling $453 million and running at 3.5 times the pace of runner-up Nvidia.

“Retail investors have shown up for SpaceX in a big way,” said Vanda Research, a firm that tracks the activity of self-directed individual investors and that spent much of Friday monitoring trading in the high-profile IPO. In the first 20 minutes of trading, SpaceX shares had vaulted to second place in the ranks of most actively purchased stocks by retail investors and by mid-afternoon was in first place, dwarfing its rivals, Vanda reported.

ALLOCATIONS FALL SHORT

Allocations, however, for some retail investors fell short of what they sought.

“Requested 250, received nothing,” ‌one of the rare disgruntled would-be investors reported on a Reddit chat devoted to figuring out who had received allocations. “Requested 555, got 10” and “requested 1,000, got 85,” other Reddit posters noted.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, whom the IPO has made the world’s first trillionaire, pledged in 2024 that if any of his still-private companies went public ⁠in the future, he intended to make sure that retail investors, especially holders of his other public company, Tesla, would have priority in accessing the new deal.

“Loyalty deserves loyalty,” he said in a post on X at the time.

Already, some fans of Musk and SpaceX are providing further signs of their commitment and conviction.

Clint Sorenson, chief investment officer of Ascentis Asset Management, told Reuters he offered all of his firm’s clients who had invested in SpaceX via private investment vehicles before the IPO the opportunity to hedge their exposure to the stock now that it is publicly traded. No one took him up on the idea, he said.

“Everyone wants to keep holding and celebrating right now; no one wants to even think of hedging their risk because they believe in the story so much,” Sorenson said.

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The Indian rupee gained 65 paise against the dollar on Friday, bolstered by a sharp decline in global crude oil prices after US President Donald Trump indicated that an agreement with Iran to end the war had nearly been clinched. The currency ended the session at 95.11 against the greenback against its previous close of 95.76. The rupee traded in the range of 94.94-95.53.

The weakest level was hit in the first half of the day, which prompted mild intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), traders said.

“There was also some intervention seen around 95.50 levels today (Friday). Then positive news came in about a peace deal, which supported the rupee. If Strait of Hormuz reopens, it will be coupled with the inflows from FCNR(B), which will take the rupee to 92-93 levels,” said Ritesh Bhansali, deputy CEO, Mecklai Financial Services.The rupee has weakened 0.29% since the beginning of this financial year, after sliding nearly 11% in 2025-26. Importers are largely staying on the sidelines for now, awaiting further appreciation in the rupee before stepping up hedging activity, traders said.

“Importers can wait for better levels, while exporters can hedge at upticks. 94.80 is a key level again, which will see some resistance as there will be stop-losses around it,” Bhansali said.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, plunged to $85.80 per barrel on Friday, hitting the lowest level in three months, after the US President said a peace agreement could be signed as early as this weekend.
The rupee had depreciated 2.2% since the start of the US-Israel war against Iran on February 28 before the Reserve Bank of India announced measures to attract capital inflow.
The sharp decline in crude oil prices, along with the measures from the Reserve Bank of India and the government announced last week, helped strengthen the rupee, traders said.

The RBI announced a series of measures aimed at attracting dollar inflows, which have helped stabilise the currency after it hit an all-time low of 96.96 per dollar in late May. “The gains seen today were all a play of Brent prices falling. If there are no further escalations, and if indeed the signing of the peace deal is close, then we can see further appreciation towards 92 per dollar,” said Sajal Gupta, head of forex and commodities at Nuvama.