There’s been one big beneficiary of the banking crisis so far: Cathie Wood
While most of the Wall Street is in panic mode amidst the spreading banking crisis, one big investor is having a field day. Cathie Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) reeled in $397 million in new money just Tuesday alone, notching the biggest one-day inflow since April 2021, according to FactSet. Investors could be piling into the innovation fund under the belief that the current banking chaos could make the Federal Reserve pause its rate hike campaign, which would benefit growth stocks. Wood’s disruptive tech darlings were among the hardest hit by rising rates over the past year. Wood herself is standing by her view that the central bank is making a policy mistake by aggressive tightening as it’s ignoring signs of deflation. She expects a grand rally could be upon her innovation stocks when rates stop their ascent. “Once the Fed stops looking backwards at CPI inflation and starts addressing the deflationary banking crisis that a 19-fold increase in short rates and an inverted yield have caused, we would not be surprised to see a return to the Roaring Twenties,” Wood said in a tweet early Wednesday. Market pricing has leaned towards no rate hike when the Fed meets March 21-22. The probability for a pause surged to as high as 65%, according to CME Group data Wednesday morning. Her flagship ETF, with about $6 billion in assets under management, is up more than 5% this week, outperforming the broader market as concerns grew that Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse could have a contagion effect on the banking sector. ARKK 1Y mountain Ark Innovation ETF ARKK has rallied 21% this year as Wood’s top holdings, such as Tesla and Roku , rebounded dramatically. The fund is still 47% off its recent high, however. Year to date, the fund, actively managed by Wood, has had $100 million inflows, the most inflows among global equity broad thematic fund category, according to FactSet. The innovation fund is focused on advanced technology companies in areas such as genomics, robotics, internet and fintech. It currently has 28 stock holdings.
