Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) stock is seeing a precipitous sell-off in Tuesday’s trading. The company’s share price was down 8.7% as of 2:45 p.m. ET amid a 0.7% pullback for the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) and a 1.5% decline for the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC). The stock had been down as much as 9.6% earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
While Rigetti Computing doesn’t have any direct connection to the home-improvement retail space, its stock is getting hit with selling pressures today in response to recent comments from Home Depot’s management. The retail giant said today that it will be raising prices on some items in its store in response to tariff-related costs<\/a>, and investors are taking the news as a worrying inflation indicator.<\/p>\n The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued its July report on Producer Price Index (PPI) inflation last week, and inflation for the period came in much higher than the market had anticipated. Core PPI, which excludes costs from the food and energy categories, rose at a 0.9% rate and far exceeded the average economist forecast’s call for inflation of 0.3%.<\/p>\n Given the higher-than-anticipated wholesaler inflation, some investors began raising alarms that accelerating inflation could soon be seen in the consumer-facing economy. Home Depot’s recent announcement of price increases due to tariffs seems to support that thesis.<\/p>\n Trading at approximately 605 times this year’s expected sales as of this writing, Rigetti Computing has an enormously growth-dependent valuation. Along with general excitement surrounding the quantum computing<\/a> space, the stock has also benefited from expectations that the Federal Reserve will deliver substantial interest rate cuts in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n In addition to last week’s PPI report, today’s comments from Home Depot highlight the risk that the U.S. will begin to see inflation levels tick upward in the near term. Given Rigetti’s speculative outlook and highly growth-dependent valuation, that makes the stock a very risky play right now. While the stock could still go on to be a huge winner over the long term, dynamics connected to inflation and interest rates suggest that investors may be able to wait for a better entry point.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Rigetti Computing, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Rigetti Computing wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you\u2019d have $671,466!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,115,633!*<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 1,076% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don\u2019t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.<\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025<\/p>\n Keith Noonan<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Home Depot. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image source: Getty Images. <\/p>\n