Dear Reader,
This is Simmy Adelman with Behind the Markets.
Happy Monday. Today is Monday, June 8th.
I want to give credit where credit is due this morning.
S&P Just Did the Right Thing
Last week, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced it will not change its rules for entry into the S&P 500.
No profitability waiver.
No shortening of the 12-month seasoning period.
No relaxing the minimum float requirement.
The rules stay exactly as they are.
And that means SpaceX — which is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq on June 12th — will not be eligible for the S&P 500 for at least a year after its listing.
As Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley, put it: "It speaks highly of the credibility of S&P Dow Jones Indices to be rules-based and make sure there's profitability before entrance to the index."
I agree completely.
Why This Matters
We talked about this a few weeks ago.
The S&P 500 is not just a stock index.
It is the foundation of trillions of dollars in retirement accounts.
When you put money into a 401k and choose an S&P 500 fund, you are choosing it because it represents established, profitable American businesses.
SpaceX posted a net loss of $4.94 billion in 2025, even as revenue rose 33% to $18.67 billion.
That loss is largely a result of the xAI merger — absorbing a company that burned $9.5 billion in nine months.
A $1.75 trillion company that is losing almost $5 billion a year does not belong in a retirement index.
Not yet.
The S&P made the right call.
The Nasdaq Is a Different Story
Nasdaq already changed its rules, which means SpaceX will be eligible to join the Nasdaq 100 when it lists.
That means every fund tracking the QQQ — $444 billion in assets — will be forced to buy SpaceX shares when it joins.
Whether they want to or not.
I understand why Nasdaq did it.
SpaceX made early entry into the Nasdaq 100 a condition of choosing Nasdaq over the NYSE.
Nasdaq wanted the listing badly enough to change its own rules to get it.
But the counterargument is equally valid.
You are now forcing passive investors who chose a tech index into a company losing $5 billion a year at a $1.75 trillion valuation.
That is a very different risk profile than what they signed up for.
The IPO Is One Week Away
SpaceX begins trading June 12th under the ticker SPCX.
The company is raising $75 billion and targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion.
At that valuation it would be among the ten most valuable companies listed in the United States.
We have been covering this story for weeks here.
The SpaceX IPO is genuinely historic.
What they’ve done so far is extraordinary.
Starlink, launch dominance, the Golden Dome defense contracts, data centers in space…
But extraordinary business and extraordinary IPO price are two different things.
The S&P's decision to keep their rules intact is a quiet but important signal.
The house has standards.
It will not lower them for anyone.
That is good news for the millions of Americans whose retirements depend on the integrity of that index.
And here is something worth thinking about before June 12th.
SpaceX's own IPO filing admits it cannot get enough chips to power its ambitions.
They are ordering NVIDIA chips at scale and building their own chip factory in Texas just to keep up with demand.
There is one tiny company holding over 6,800 patents that NVIDIA, Apple, Google, Amazon, and now SpaceX all depend on.
NVIDIA tried to buy them outright.
The FTC said no.
The smart money has been quietly piling in.
It doesn't matter how SpaceX trades on June 12th because this supplier collects a toll either way.
Anyway, that's all I have for you today.
Stay tuned for your regular scheduled programing tomorrow.
All the best,
Simmy Adelman, Editor-in-Chief
Behind the Markets
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Written by Simcha Adelman