Trading frontiers
- Morgan Stanley & Co. unveils “Space 60” list
- Space economy ranges from tech to industrials
- Key players likely to shift over time
Globalstar (GSAT) spent much of a quiet Wednesday trading a little above and below the record closing price of $79.91 it set one day earlier:
Source: Power E*TRADE. (For illustrative purposes. Not a recommendation.)
The stock’s narrow trading range probably confused traders who may have noticed GSAT’s higher-than-average call options volume but missed Tuesday’s news that Amazon (AMZN) was acquiring the satellite company in a reported $11 billion deal.
That announcement came a couple of days after AMZN and GSAT appeared in a research report from Morgan Stanley & Co. detailing some of the potential players in the increasingly high-profile “space economy.”
Noting increased investor interest in this arena amid the Artemis II mission, the analysts reviewed the “Space 60”—five-dozen stock spanning seven key categories: 1) raw materials and mining, 2) specialty materials and alloys, 3) propulsion and fuels, 4) electronics and semiconductors, 5) components and subsystems, 6) spacecraft and launch systems, and 7) satellite operators and services.1
As these categories reveal, the space economy doesn’t revolve solely around high tech—and reality underlined by the “picks and shovels” reference in the report’s title. Mining, raw materials, and fuel are as integral as semiconductors, spacecraft, and communications.
While many of the companies on the list are household names to many investors and traders, others will likely be fresh faces. That includes stocks like Linde (LIN) and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS)—the latter distinguishing itself because (unlike the majority on the list) it’s trading closer to its lowest levels of the past six months rather than its highest. Shares have recently consolidated around the implied support of their November lows after a roughly 50% retreat from their January record high:
Source: Power E*TRADE. (For illustrative purposes. Not a recommendation.)
The analysts stress that the Space 60 list—like the “Humanoid 100,” which maps the humanoid robot value chain—is intended as a constantly evolving “open source” reference, with companies added or removed as the industry landscape evolves.
Market Mover Update: The S&P 500 (SPX), Nasdaq Composite (COMP), and Nasdaq 100 (NDX) indexes closed at new record highs on Wednesday—even as oil prices trade slightly higher for much of the day—as traders and investors continued to look ahead to a resolution of the US-Iran standoff.
Netflix (NFLX), which is scheduled to release earnings after today’s closing bell, closed at its highest level since December 2 on Wednesday.
Today’s numbers include (all times ET): jobless claims (8:30 a.m.), Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (8:30 a.m.), Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization (9:15 a.m.), EIA Natural Gas Report (10:30 a.m.).
Today’s earnings include: Alcoa (AA), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Bank of New York Mellon (BK), KeyCorp (KEY), Marsh & McLennan (MRSH), Netflix (NFLX), PepsiCo (PEP), Travelers Companies (TRV), US Bancorp (USB).
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1 MorganStanley.com. The Space 60: Picks & Shovels for the Final Frontier. 4/12/26.