Marketplace - The SpaceX share lock-up period, explained

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

SpaceX went public Friday, with much pomp and circumstance. Investors are already buying and selling the company’s stock — well, some investors. Employees, early investors, and Elon Musk all held SpaceX stock pre-IPO. Now, the company will supervise when and how they can sell it off. In this episode, we explain why. Plus: An unlikely city tops list of best metro areas for recent college grads, an AI chatbot helps one reporter sell his house, and we break down the week’s economic headlines.Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.

On today's show, we'll unpack an uncertain economy. We will, yes, talk about SpaceX. And here's a left-field question. Would you trust AI to sell your house? From American Public Media, this is Marketplace. In New York, I'm Kristen Schwab in for Kyra's doll. It's Friday, June 12th, and it's good to be here with you. It's been another week of not really knowing where the war is heading,

which means it's been another week of not really knowing where the economy is heading. But as we always do on Fridays, we're going to take some time to try and sort it all out. Catherine Rampel is at MS Now in the bulwark. Courtney Brown is at Axios. Hey, guys. Hey, happy weekend. Uh, before we get to that, though, let's start here. Catherine, we've got a Fed meeting next week. And it's notably Kevin Warsh's first as the new Fed chair. Do you have any predictions on what'll happen? You know, he has his work cut out for him because he clearly got the job, at least in part, because Donald Trump was expecting him to cut interest rates. Certainly the president said that that was going to be a litmus test before he had chosen Mr. Warsh, the new chair.

And now it is becoming increasingly difficult for Kevin Warsh to deliver on that promise or at least expectation given. where we have seen the recent set of inflation prints with CPI and PPI, among others, much hotter than the Fed would like even when you strip out things like energy, which is, you know, which is obviously driving a lot of the growth. And if you look at where markets are expecting things to go, markets are not expecting any rate cuts in the near or even medium term. Instead, the first move, the first change from current levels that they expect would be probably at the end of the year. And that would be a rate hike.

So I think Kevin Warsh's real challenge is how does he manage expectations. He has talked in the past about how he doesn't think that there should be as much forward guidance coming from the Fed for the markets. But how is he going to manage expectations for the White House? That's a much bigger challenge. Yeah. Courtney, so we might not see any movement next week. but I am wondering what you'll be paying close attention to to get an understanding of how Orsch may handle the economy. I am so curious how he's going to interact with the reporters in the room. You might remember a small moment from his confirmation hearing that he kind of suggested he wasn't so into doing these press conferences after every Fed meeting, which that is a tradition that Powell started.

So in the broadest sense, you know, how much color is he going to give us? Just like Catherine was saying, there is almost like a mini revolt underway at the Fed. We saw at the last Fed press conference, a group of Fed presidents say, I'm going to dissent. I want the policy language to be more even-handed because right now, as it is, the policy language suggests that the next move could be a rate cut. And as Catherine was saying, Fed officials don't necessarily agree that will be the case, right? So, you know, what happens to that language? Does it get changed? And when, you know, when Fed Chair Warsh approaches the group of reporters, is he going to take us inside the meeting in a way that maybe Powell did? Will he tell us about some of the conversation in the room? And, you know, not to get too meta, but will he continue doing these press conferences? That's one question I have. Mm-hmm. Catherine, you know, you referenced the producer price index that came in this week that was hot and the consumer price index, mostly because of rising energy costs. I'm wondering if you think the Fed thinks this is just a one-time spike and maybe a different question if you think it's a one-time spike. That's really the gazillion dollar question, right? Historically, the Fed has said that they would look through what happens with energy prices. I mean, that's the reason why they focus on so-called core inflation because energy prices are very volatile as are food prices. This time around, you could imagine that it may not be worth so-called, you know, the look-through in the sense that it could be a very sustained increase in.

energy prices and energy prices feed through to the costs of other goods. So we'll push up, but we'll place upward pressure on lots of other things consumers buy. There's also the potential interaction between what's happened with tariffs raising costs, raising prices, and the Iran War, you know, Strait of Hormuz, energy shock, other commodity shock, kind of creating this one-two punch that could potentially dislocate or unanchor expectations. And that's really what the Fed is hoping to avoid. That's the real way that this could feed into trend inflation as if everybody looks around and says, well, you know what, I'm really worried that my suppliers are going to raise prices. I might as well preemptively raise my own prices. Or I'm really worried that my employees are going to demand higher wages,

therefore I'm going to raise prices. And it can all feed on itself. So that's really the longer-term concern. If this were just a one-time shock and the shock eventually reverses itself and you don't have all of that other, you know, psychology working its way through the markets, then sure, the Fed should just ignore it and go on its way without potentially contemplating rate hikes. But we saw the ECB this week decide that they were concerned enough about rising prices, again, largely linked to these disruptions from the war, that they were going to raise their own interest rates. And so the real question is when, if and when, presumably when other central banks, including the Federal Reserve, may follow suit for similar reasons.

You know, something different about this spike in inflation, Courtney, that you wrote about this week, is that rising prices are actually outpacing wages, which is the opposite of what happened during the pandemic. How important, Courtney, do you think that bullet point is and what does it tell us about inflation? I think it helps explain, right, why consumers are so. they feel so, you know, pained by what's going on. Not only are, you know, prices at the pump, you know, rising really quickly. And that's a very salient price in the economy that consumers will feel immediately because of the war. You know, overall inflation is outpacing whatever gains they're getting in their paycheck.

So in real terms, they're essentially getting a pay cut. And there's a bunch of different ways to measure wage growth. but if you look at average hourly earnings, which comes out in the jobs report and you compare it to CPI, I mean, yeah, there's a big gulf opening up. We had some reporting this week that showed that when you look at real wage growth since President Trump took office, they've essentially, all of the gains that we've seen have essentially been wiped out. So in the span of four months wiping out a year plus of wage gains. And that's really meaningful, not only because of the pain that consumers are feeling, but because, you know, this wage measure. we're talking about. This is the one that the Trump administration this time last year was touting as a sign that their agenda was working. And so now that the opposite is the case, you got to ask if there are questions inside the White House worrying about what the consumer impact will be. Do they pull back on spending things of that nature? We will find out. Courtney Brown is at Axios. Catherine Rampel is at MS now and the bulwark. Thanks you too and have a good weekend.

Thanks, Christian. Thank you. Street today, SpaceX may be a deal with Iran. What's not to love? We'll have the details when we do the numbers. As if you haven't already heard, SpaceX went public today. Shares started at an offering price of $135 and closed at just above $161. Anyone can now own a piece of Elon Musk's rocket company, but not everyone can sell their shares yet. Marketplace's Sabri Benishore has more on why early investors, the ones who stand to make the most, are locked out of cashing out, at least for now. The people who bought stock in SpaceX today are not the only ones who own a piece of that company.

Not even close. There's a whole long line of people who got there first. People who had the stock before it was public. Lisa Bayer is founder of IPO advisory firm Class 5 Group. So like Elon Musk, obviously, owned shares of the company before. anyone else did. He actually owns 42% of all SpaceX shares. There's also venture capital firms, early investors, also employees get shares as part of their pay. There are an awful lot of early investors in SpaceX who have made unimaginable returns in short periods of time. A lot of them

would probably love to sell on day one of trading to make a lot of money. That would look really bad. say management is selling the shares. That's not cool. Don't they believe in the company, right? John Pennett is a partner at consulting firm Eisner Amper. Not only would it freak out new investors to see the old investors and higher up suddenly selling, it would also just take some of the air out of the whole entire IPO. Everybody starts to sell, which then starts putting a lot of downward pressure on the stock price. Not to mention, insiders selling their shares on day one would kind of invite. insight insider trading. Jay Ritter is director of the IPO initiative at the University of Florida. When a company is going public, insiders in particular typically have some information that outside investors might not be aware of. So for all of these reasons, the OG investors are contractually

not allowed to sell their shares at first. It's called a lockup period. Commonly 180 days. Could be 90 days, could be less. SpaceX is released. releasing its OG investors from selling jail gradually and complicatedly. Like they can sell a little bit after the next earnings report, a little bit more. If the stock is doing really well, a little bit more later. Basically, it's a way to let investors and employees make some money without rocking the whole boat. In New York, I'm Sabrina Beneshire for Marketplace. College graduation season is coming to a close, and graduates are entering a tough job market.

The unemployment rate for recent college grads, That's people with a degree ages 22 to 27. Their unemployment rate is nearly a percent and a half higher than it is for all workers. Some context here. Historically, the unemployment rate for recent grads has been lower than the overall rate. All this, plus the rising cost of living, has young professionals thinking hard about where they should move. According to a report from the payroll processor ADP, the best spot for college grads is not in California, or New York, it's in Alabama.

Here's WBHM's Olivia McMurray in Birmingham. About twice a week, Sierra Parine goes to her favorite coffee shop, June coffee, in downtown Birmingham. What are we thinking today? Okay, can I just do that iced over a lot? Absolutely ice. Parine is from Arizona, and she says she wanted to leave the state for a new experience during college. I always joked growing up that I wanted to live somewhere green and fluffy, and I described Alabama as that. But after graduating from the University of Alabama in 2022, with a degree in engineering,

the 26-year-old says she's surprised to still be here, putting down roots. One big reason she's sticking around? Her job. Herine coordinates the vision of architects with the practical concerns of mechanical engineers for Brassfield and Gorey, a Birmingham construction firm. She interned with a company while in college and was hired after she graduated. She had other offers, some with higher salaries, but... For me, that wasn't a huge deal because Birmingham was so affordable and it's what I knew I wanted to do.

The next year, she bought a house. If I look at what I would have been able to get in Scottsdale versus here, it's drastically different. Alabama's largest universities are pulling in significant numbers of out-of-state students, many of whom, like Perrine, stay after graduation. Tom Spencer is a senior research associate with the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama. We are importing a lot of talent from around the country. We have strong demand for new employees and yet not an oversupply.

Spencer says that as demand for workers grows, industries are having to increase wages. In Birmingham, median annual wages for recent graduates rose more than 16% over the last 12 months, according to ADP. Trevor Sutton, Chief Economic Development Officer for the Birmingham Business Alliance, also points to quality of life factors attracting young professionals, like award-winning restaurants, concert venues, and plenty of parks and green spaces. They're like, this is what I really liked when I visited Atlanta or Nashville,

but I also didn't like having to drive or wait in traffic for 40 minutes. So I think that's been really resonating. Government, business, and community groups in Birmingham are working hard to recruit young people and to narrow economic disparity in the city by developing and retaining those already here. About a quarter of the city's residents live in poverty. Often, wealth inequality in the metro area breaks down along racial lines. The city of Birmingham is almost 70% black, and residential areas in schools are still mostly segregated, not by law, but by practice. The city is funding programs to help local job seekers and partnering with universities and employers to provide scholarships to graduates of Birmingham's public school system.

At a kickoff event for Fuel Alabama, which provides networking opportunities for college students doing summer internships, more than half of about 70 interns gathered at when Birmingham's hip breweries were from out of state, but locals were there to, Birmingham native Morgan Escott Holmes says Atlanta and other big cities are options for launching her marketing career, but she's made connections with employers here. I feel as if foundation-wise, I will be here in Birmingham. I just feel as if with the community that I've built that I just would want to be here. I wouldn't see myself anywhere else. Choices like that could help Alabama's largest metro area reduce its poverty rate

and keep the supply of college-educated workers flowing. In Birmingham, I'm Olivia McMurray for Marketplace. place. Coming up, that pile of sticks is worth $300. Are you kidding? Spoiler alert, it is not just a pile of sticks, but first, let's do the numbers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 353 points, 7 tenths percent, to finish at 51,202. The NASDAQ crept up 79 points, 3 tenths percent, to close at 25,088. And the S&P 500 added 37 points, half a percent to end at 7431. For the week, the Dow gained 7 tenths percent. The NASDAQ also rose 7 tenths percent. The S&P 500 improved 6 tenths percent. Sabri told us all about space exploration technologies.

It soared 19 and 3 tenths percent. Bonds fell. The yield on the tenure T-note rose to 4.48 percent. You're listening to Marketplace. This is Marketplace. I'm Kristen Schwab. People are quickly becoming more comfortable with AI. Maybe you've used it to draft an email, search for a deal on a new vacuum, or plan a vacation. But do you trust the technology enough to let it take the reins on a much higher stakes task? Stuart Thompson recently used a chatbot instead of a realtor to sell his family's home. He wrote about the experience for the New York Times. Stuart, thanks for being here.

Yeah, nice to be here. So I have to start with an obvious question. The first obvious question, I mean, you, you know, used AI to sell what is your biggest asset. What were you thinking? Well, I was basically trying to save money and trying to get the most value I could out of our house. We bought it at the peak of the pandemic, essentially, like peak of the pandemic housing boom. And right after we bought it, we watched in horror as Zillow showed our home value falling. And I wasn't sure how much it was worth. and I started talking to realtors, and they didn't give me a lot of confidence that it would sell well.

So I think that was the major impulse was like, let's try not to lose too much money on this. And what parts of the process did you use a chat bot for? I would say basically everything. And it was very surprising how much you kind of need to know or how many different kinds of questions you encounter when you're in this process. there was the listing itself, like how to write it, what to emphasize. We had one buyer who said they were going to put in an offer, and they drove around the neighborhood and came back, and they said, you know what, the garden isn't really big enough for her dream retirement garden. And I was so confused by that. What do you say to that? Should I push and try to get them interested? I went to the chat bot, and it basically said, they wanted out. They didn't want to go through with it, and they're just saying something. They're just coming up with a reason. It's not probably the real. and they didn't like the neighborhood or the drive was too far, stuff like that.

So it was really good at processing the information that was incoming. Yeah, you know, selling a house, it's a bit of science, a bit of art, no? I mean, how did the chatbot do when it came down and negotiating with those three offers you got? It was also very good at that. I think in every part of this process, I had to bring in my own kind of like thoughts and ingenuity. And that's maybe one criticism against the process. the chatbot's not going to give you anything unless you give it something to work with. I came across this idea.

I ever had the very last minute. I didn't want to pay the listing agent. And in a normal transaction, you pay 3% to the realtor you're working with as the seller. You also pay 3% to the buyer's agent typically. And I just said, like, what if I made that part of this negotiation? And it gave me the confidence to move forward with that request. So it told me what to say it, how to say it. Yeah, it was a great process.

Yeah, so what were the numbers in the end? Did you end up making more than you expected? Yeah, so we thought, we listed the house for around 550. All the offers came in at around 605-ish. I didn't pay a realtor on my side, so I saved $15,000 roughly, and I didn't pay a realtor on their side either, another $12,000 or $15,000. So I think all in, we probably made $90,000. more than if we did it the usual way, selling it for the price that everyone had expected. You end your story saying that you typed into the chat bot, saying you need to buy a house, you're doing it without an agent. Where do I start? Have you used AI for your home search? I have used AI. I have bought a home, actually. So we've relocated, we purchased it. I did use AI as a big part of that process. I used a flat fee realtor, so I didn't have to pay the 3%, again, trying to save money. But when you use a flat fee realtor, they're not as involved necessarily

as a full-service realtor. So I used AI for a bunch of things to help assess the price of a home, to help pick a bid price. The AI was there for me. Once again, saved me, I think, a ton of money on this side of the process. And, yeah, it was another good experience. Thompson is a reporter at the New York Times, and he sold his house using an AI chatbot. Stuart, thanks again. Thanks so much. When we talk about climate change, we often talk about the life and death of products, like water bottles, sweaters, and electronics.

But have you ever thought about the life and death of yourself? A little morbid, I know. But the demand for green funerals, those are burials that have a lower carbon impact, is growing. That brings us to this installment of our series My Economy. My name is Mary Lauren Fraser, and I live in Montague, Massachusetts, and I weave willow coffins for a living. I was traveling in Scotland, and I met this woman totally by chance, and her business was pretty new.

She was a coffin weaver. My friend took me to visit her work. workshop and we walked in and I saw a woven coffin in progress and was like, I have to do this. I just felt like a full body reaction to it. So I asked her about apprenticing. It was weaving full days, six days a week and then at the end of the apprenticeship made some coffins. It's been four years this year that it's been my primary income. I've sold between a dozen and 16 coffins a year. They're handmade, but they're also 100% biodegradable, so they make a lot of sense to use for Green Burial. 11 years ago, it was still very much a baby. A lot of people had not heard what Green Burial

was. They didn't know what it was. That's still the case, but it's really grown a lot. especially in the last five years. I guess I hit the scene a little early. I primarily use willow, and then I use some pine to supplement. Part of it is that it's cheaper. Part of it is that I love working with pine. Part of it is that the willow can be hard to get a hold of some years because there's only a few farms in the U.S.

a bundle of willow, which if you put your hands together and make a circle, that's well over $100. To make a coffin, it's several bundles of willow. People often are like, what? That pile of sticks is worth $300? Are you kidding? One thing I've offered in the last couple of years is people can come and do a little bit of the weaving on their own. where their loved ones cough in. And what I hear is that it gives them a sense of autonomy

and, you know, a process where a lot of us feel like we don't have any. So there's been really special experiences that have come from offering this work. That's Mary Lauren Fraser in Montague, Massachusetts. We want to hear from you, write to us about what's happening in your economy at Marketplace.org slash my economy. No time for a final note here today, too much chatting. Our theme music was composed by B.J. Leatherman.

Marketplace's executive producer is Nancy Fargolly. Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer. Neil Scarborough is the vice president and general manager. And I'm Kristen Schwab. Have a great weekend. We'll be back here on Monday. This is APM. Hey, kids.

Have you ever heard term? like capitalism, socialism, or communism? The truth is, people have been debating the merits of these isms for a really long time. And in our latest episode of Million Bazillion, Ryan and I finally tackle one of the biggest economic questions of the last few centuries. What's better capitalism or socialism? What? No, we're just going to talk about the differences between these systems and understand how they came about in the context of their eras in a way that makes it fun and

educational for kids. And then we settle this once and for all, which ism works the best. for society, capitalism, communism, or socialism. No, we're not doing that. This is just a normal episode of Million Bazillion. Listen to Million Bazillion on your favorite podcast app. Then tell us which ism you think is best. Brian, no.