Joby Aviation (JOBY) shares are having a strong Monday, up more than 10% as of publication. The catalyst? Growing excitement around the company's newly finalized mass-manufacturing partnership with Toyota Motor Corp. (TM). The broader market is also in a good mood—the Nasdaq is up 1.71% and the S&P 500 has gained 0.82%—but Joby's move is clearly company-specific.

Toyota Partnership Drives Commercial Production Strategy

The upward momentum follows the creation of a joint venture called Joby Toyota Aero Manufacturing Preparation Company. This entity is designed to support commercial production and scale-up of Joby's electric air taxi aircraft. It's a marriage of Joby's electric aviation development with Toyota's world-renowned production systems.

Toyota holds a 51% stake in the venture after purchasing 1.02 million shares for $1.02 million, while Joby holds a 49% stake after acquiring 980,000 shares for $980,000. This builds on a multi-year collaboration and follows Toyota's $500 million investment in Joby in late 2024 to fund aircraft certification and early-stage production.

High Short Interest

MarketDash data shows that short interest in Joby Aviation increased during the last reporting period, rising from 88.95 million to 100.74 million shares. That means 15.36% of the company's publicly available shares are currently sold short. Based on the recent average volume of 30.62 million shares traded per day, it would take 3.29 days for short sellers to close out their positions without driving the stock higher. That's a relatively high short interest, which can sometimes fuel sharp rallies if shorts are forced to cover.

Q2 Financial Outlook and Certification Milestones

Joby Aviation is developing an all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi, with plans to operate global services and sell aircraft to partners. The company is expected to report its second-quarter earnings on August 5. Analysts estimate a loss per share of 23 cents and quarterly revenue of $29.07 million. As a pre-revenue company (or very early revenue), the focus remains on certification progress and production milestones.

Critical Levels To Watch for JOBY Stock

From a trend perspective, JOBY is still working its way back from a longer-term downtrend. It's trading about 24% below its 200-day simple moving average (SMA) of $12.27 and remains below its 50-day SMA ($9.89) and 100-day SMA ($9.62). The stock is only slightly above its 20-day SMA ($9.24), which often acts like a "line in the sand" for short-term control.

Momentum is best framed through the Relative Strength Index (RSI), which sits at 47.89—neutral and consistent with a stock that's trying to stabilize rather than break into a clean uptrend. RSI measures how stretched a move is versus recent price action, and a reading near 50 typically signals a tug-of-war between buyers and sellers.

The moving-average structure still leans bearish, with the 20-day SMA below the 50-day SMA and a death cross in February (50-day SMA below the 200-day SMA) keeping longer-term trend followers cautious. Key turning points also matter here: after a swing low in April and a swing high in May, the stock broke above resistance in May but then broke below support in June—setting up the current rebound attempt as a "repair" move.

• Key Resistance: $10.50 — a nearby round-number zone that also sits above the 50-day/100-day area where rebounds can stall.
• Key Support: $9.00 — a nearby round-number level close to the short-term moving-average cluster where buyers may try to defend pullbacks.

JOBY Stock Price Activity: Joby Aviation shares were up 10.38% at $9.37 at the time of publication on Monday, according to market data.