NEW YORK, June 23: SpaceX shares slipped for a third straight day, shedding hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, after the Elon Musk-led company said it is selling investment-grade bonds for the first time, part of what's expected to be a massive borrowing spree to fund its artificial-intelligence ambitions.

The stock fell 16 per cent Monday to close at $154.60, the lowest level since the company's first day of trading, pushing its three-day loss to 23 per cent and erasing over $600 billion in value over that period. The company's market capitalisation now sits just above $2 trillion.

"Sellers are back in control. Anyone in the world who wanted to buy this has bought it already," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.

SpaceX's first days of trading following its record $75 billion initial public offering were met with the type of volatility generally associated with new IPOs that have a low float -- 4.2 per cent of total shares outstanding were available to trade on day one - and high interest from retail investors. Still, even with Monday's losses, SpaceX is the sixth-largest company in the world with shares about 15 per cent higher than their $135 IPO price.

The rocket, satellite and AI conglomerate is seeking to raise at least $20 billion from the first bond offering, Bloomberg reported last week. SpaceX also inked a multibillion-dollar agreement to provide computing resources to Reflection AI, an AI startup, the company said Monday.

SpaceX's embrace of artificial intelligence with the acquisition of Musk's xAI in February meant investors closely watched the listing ahead of IPO prospects of competitors Anthropic PBC and OpenAI, both of which plan to go public as soon as this year with valuations expected to be around $1 trillion.

Retail trading in SpaceX, officially named Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was the strongest of any IPO in recent history, with the cohort buying net $405 million in the first five sessions according to Vanda Research. Retail investors bought more SpaceX last week than buying across all Magnificent Seven stocks combined, the data showed. On Monday, retail traders were still net buyers of SpaceX, but inflows were below last week's levels, Vanda data showed.

The stock was initiated with a recommendation of sector weight at KeyBanc Capital Markets, the first hold-equivalent rating according to data tracked by Bloomberg. Analysts led by Michael Leshock wrote that SpaceX is set to remain the leader in space-launch and adjacent verticals, but much of the long-term value is already captured in the stock price.

SpaceX "possesses significant disruptive growth avenues, though we believe this is reflected in current valuation and risk/reward appears balanced, in our view," he wrote.

India-EU trade pact to be signed by December; implemented from Feb-Mar next year: Piyush Goyal

MUMBAI, June 21: India and the 27-nation European Union will sign the free trade agreement by December and are likely to implement the pact during February- March next year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Sunday.

On January 27 this year, India and the EU announced the conclusion of negotiations for the 'mother of all deals'.

"Now, with almost zero duty, almost the entire European market will be open for us. The EU's FTA (free trade agreement) will be signed by December and will be effective by February-March," Goyal said during an interaction with chartered accountants in Mumbai.

He also said that his U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, is coming to India this week to hold trade pact talks with him.

"The whole world is looking towards India," he added.

Under the India-EU FTA, about 93% of Indian shipments will enjoy duty-free access to the 27-nation bloc, while imports of luxury cars and wines from the EU will become less expensive.

Taken together, India and the EU account for 25% of the global GDP and one-third (about $11 trillion) of international trade (about $33 trillion).

Later, he told reporters that during the G7 Summit in France, the Canadian Prime Minister expressed a desire to conclude the proposed free trade agreement with India this year.

The two sides held the second round of negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in May.