Welcome back to Markets Desk, here's what's moving the needle this afternoon.
President Trump has paused a sweeping Russia sanctions package — legislation he personally signed just one month ago — issuing an executive order citing national interest, and stopping implementation just two days before its legal deadline. The move drew sharp bipartisan condemnation from Congress and introduces fresh uncertainty into geopolitical risk pricing across energy and emerging market assets.
Shifting to space, Morgan Stanley's three-hundred-dollar price target on SpaceX has thirty-five analysts paying close attention, and here's the striking detail — less than three percent of that valuation is tied to rocket launches. The real thesis sits in Starlink's satellite internet business, which analysts see as a high-margin, scalable platform that dwarfs the launch economics most retail investors associate with the company.
And in the EV space, the Lucid versus Rivian debate continues to sharpen for long-term investors. Lucid is leaning into its efficiency advantage at the luxury end of the market, backstopped by a significant multi-year purchase agreement with the Saudi government — a deal that provides revenue visibility most early-stage EV makers simply don't have. Rivian, meanwhile, faces a different set of questions around scaling its commercial and consumer lines profitably.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
