Why Rivian, Lucid, and Nikola Stocks Tanked Today

What happened

Growth and technology stocks are leading the market lower today, but early-stage electric vehicle (EV) stocks are tanking even more. The Nasdaq Composite Index moved down by more than 1.2% as of 2:55 p.m. ET, but EV start-ups Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ: RIVN), Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID), and Nikola (NASDAQ: NKLA) were faring much worse. At that time, Rivian, Lucid, and Nikola had dropped 4.6%, 8.6%, and 9%, respectively.

So what

These three stocks are all down between 59% and 67% year to date. There are some company- and business-specific reasons for this, but today's move has more to do with the macro environment. Yesterday brought a double dose of news that didn't do anything to make investors want to jump into these high-risk, speculative names.

Vladimir Putin ramped up his aggressive war talk, while in the U.S. the Federal Reserve decided on a third-straight 75-basis-point interest rate hike. Other countries around the world followed overnight, making the environment for start-up companies like these EV makers even more precarious.