Cathie Wood Says ARKK Is ‘the New Nasdaq’

Cathie Wood’s funds had a scorching start to the year and she wants investors to know it.
In an interview with Bloomberg’s Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec, the founder and chief executive officer of ARK Investment Management said her flagship fund now gives investors better exposure to long-term innovation than most of the market’s most popular growth stock benchmarks.

The claim is the just latest from the ARK Investment Management founder who is known for making bold predictions. She again reiterated a forecast that Bitcoin will top $1 million per coin in the next decade.
Unlike last year when risk assets and new technologies sold off, however, her forecasts seem a little more prescient: ARKK is currently up 42% year-to-date, while the Nasdaq 100 is up 17%.

Wood explained that while 2022 was a “horrific” year for her fund’s returns amid the rapid rise in interest rates, investors sold their positions in growth benchmarks like the Nasdaq and moved into her fund. The ARKK ETF saw positive inflows of about $1.3 billion last year, despite plunging 67% in its worst annual performance on record.

“Innovation was one of the biggest victims of the massive interest rate increase we saw last year,” she said. “We felt it every time chairman Powell spoke.”
She added that last year’s plunge was driven by “exaggerated” fears of interest rates and angst that higher inflation would remain embedded in the economy as in the 1970’s. Now, she would not be surprised if the US central bank cuts rates at some point in 2023.