(Bloomberg) — The violent stock rotation that sent the Ark Innovation ETF to its worst losses in a year is a healthy development for a bull market that will spur the fund to “concentrate toward our highest-conviction names,” its founder Cathie Wood said.
Wood’s exchange-traded funds fell again Monday, extending a selloff that has wiped 30% from her flagship investing strategy since a Feb. 12 high. Ark Innovation just logged a third week of declines, the longest stretch of weekly losses since the Covid 19-spurred meltdown last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fund fell for a fifth day Monday, losing 5.8%, with other products from Wood’s Ark Investment Management dropping in lockstep.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV Monday night, Wood said the market is experiencing a rotation out of high-growth companies and into value stocks that is “happening very quickly” and is a sign of the bull market broadening. Her strategy in such an environment is to treat her more liquid holdings such as Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. as “cash-like instruments” and concentrate her funds in higher-conviction stocks.
A broadening market “is good news,” she said. “We keep our eye on the prize. We have a five-year time horizon.”
A glance at some of the biggest Ark holdings helps explain the firm’s current woes: Tesla Inc., its top bet, dropped 5.8% Monday, while Square Inc. plunged 6.7%, and Teladoc Health Inc. declined 6.9%. All of them have been tumbling in recent weeks.
Those stocks have been some of the hottest on Wall Street, surging amid a shift to online working and the election of U.S. President Joe Biden raising expectations of a policy boost for electric vehicles.
Now, the prospect of rising inflation amid an economic recovery is driving up bond yields, making the highest priced equities less attractive. The Nasdaq 100 extended its drop to 11% from its all-time high, while the 10-year Treasury rate is around 1.6%.
The prolonged run of losses across Wood’s funds represents the biggest test yet for the firm she founded in 2014. Investors poured billions of dollars into her ETFs in recent months inspired by Ark’s stellar returns in 2020.
Recent data showed that Wood’s main fund recorded a small inflow on Thursday, even as it dropped 5.3%. Other funds like the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and the Ark Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG) each saw more than $180 million in outflows during Friday’s session. Those funds fell 5.3% and 4% on Monday, respectively.
Short interest in ARKK, as measured by the percentage of available shares that are on loan, has climbed to a record of more than 5%, according to data from IHS Markit Ltd. Bearish bets had eased slightly on Thursday.
Still, ARKK has yet to see a large-scale investor exodus despite the recent trouble, possibly due to dip buyers snapping up cheaper shares. Plus the fund is still up more than 100% in the past year.
“For high-flying niche ETFs that hit a rough patch, money historically has left more slowly than it came in, and we expect ARKK’s flows to be similarly mixed for some time,” Eric Balchunas, ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a recent note.
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