Rivian Automotive (RIVN) Stock News and Forecast: CEO reverses price hikes, but stock still set to break $50

• RIVN stock falls nearly 5% on Thursday despite the company backtracking on price hikes.
• Rivian stock had fallen sharply on Wednesday due to announcing higher prices.
• Customer backlash appears to have prompted Rivian to rethink its strategy.

Rivian (RIVN) stock remains highly volatile, one of its defining features, as it whipsawed around on Thursday with some conflicting news. The stock though still was weak and closed nearly 5% lower on Thursday at $50.91. The stock is obviously close to breaking the psychological $50 level, and we would not be surprised to see some stops triggered below $50.

Rivian Stock News

Rivian stock had collapsed over 13% on Wednesday after the company announced price hikes for some of its models. The EV truck maker cited ongoing supply issues and rising input costs.

"This rise in cost and complexity due to these challenging circumstances necessitate an increase to the prices of the R1T and R1S models we offer today — prices originally set in 2018,” Jiten Behl, chief growth officer of Rivian, told Benzinga.

This however naturally did not sit well with customers, some of whom put their deposits down some time ago. Social media sites lit up with customers holding reservations and complaining. Rivian stock had already been on the back foot due to contagion effects from Lucid's (LCID) weak earnings on Monday. So this news was a further blow and set the stock sharply lower. The backlash was obviously strong enough to get the top brass at Rivian worried, and on Thursday Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe emailed customers to say they would backtrack and honour the original price.

"For anyone with a Rivian preorder as of the March 1 pricing announcement, your original configured price will be honored," Scaringe wrote in the email. "If you canceled your preorder on or after March 1 and would like to reinstate it, we will restore your original configuration, pricing and delivery timing."

This seemed to have a positive impact on Rivian stock early in the session. Rivian had opened Thursday in the red, but this announcement saw a quick rebound and Rivian was trading nearly 2% higher after just 10 minutes of the regular session open. These gains could not be sustained, however, and that first 10 minutes was as good as it got for Rivian stock as it slid lower quickly, a worrying sign.

Rivian Stock Forecast

There is no doubt that the current environment both macroeconomically and geopolitically is hurting high growth stocks such as Rivian. This is not likely to change any time soon, and we have been consistent in predicting more losses for Rivian stock. Breaking $50 will set a new low and likely see some stop losses triggered. There is no support on the chart given we are near record lows. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has now broken back from its small uptrend, and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is crossing bearishly. Only breaking $71.80 changes our view.

Rivian stock chart, daily