RIVN Stock: Rivian announces apprenticeship program for its new factory

Among the most focused electric vehicle stocks today, Rivian (Nasdaq:Raven) is seeing some impressive volatility in afternoon trading. Despite opening higher this morning, RIVN stock has since quickly given up its early morning gains, trading down more than 3% as of this writing.

The move down comes despite an interesting announcement from the electric car maker that it will launch an apprenticeship program tied to its new manufacturing facility in Georgia. This program is intended to support “the development of trained employees at the future manufacturing plant in Stanton Springs North, Georgia.”

With growing interest in employee retention and satisfaction in the auto industry (given the pain caused by strikes at the Big Three automakers), investors may rightly view such a move as a positive.

Let’s dive into what to do with this news, and why Rivian is trending lower today.

RIVN shares decline despite interesting announcement

In the world of electric car production (or any car production, really), there are many factors that investors need to price into their valuation models. It is clear that employee retention and developing a skilled workforce are key priorities for most companies, especially those in growth mode. Thus, this announcement should be viewed as a positive for Rivian, especially when investors take into account the business-related issues that many of its peers have faced.

However, this positive stimulus unfortunately comes alongside other gloomy macroeconomic factors. Overall, the outlook for the EV market has deteriorated, especially for EV manufacturers focused on the higher end of the consumer spectrum. High interest rates have led to financing costs that may simply take too many potential buyers out of the market for Rivian trucks and SUVs. And while these products look great and certainly have the potential to eat up market share over time, if the company’s consumer base can’t afford its cars, it’s going to be tough from here.

Now, one might also argue that Rivian’s target customer is unlikely to be significantly affected by rising interest rates. In fact, many of them may be cash buyers, which means they have less price sensitivity.

But with long-term bond yields rising today, that’s the overarching narrative driving most electric vehicle stocks lower today. Thus, RIVN stock is probably worth a look on this positive news, despite the bearish macro backdrop.

On the date of publication, Chris McDonald did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and subject to InvestorPlace.com’s publishing guidelines.