Tech sell-off, rising yields push Cathie Wood’s ARK ETF down 20% for month

By David Randall

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A swift sell-off in technology stocks and surge in Treasury yields are punishing Cathie Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF, leaving the closely followed fund down more than 20% for the month of August.

Wood, whose $7.2 billion fund is well-known for its large bets on companies such as Tesla (NASDAQ:), Roku (NASDAQ:) and Coinbase (NASDAQ:) Global, remains one of the best-performing fund managers for the year to date. Despite its steep losses this month, ARK Innovation is up nearly 29% so far this year, a performance that puts it in the top 2 percentile of all U.S. mid-cap growth funds tracked by Morningstar.

Much of the gains for the year came as inflation concerns ebbed and longer-duration Treasury yields subsided. Yet signs of strength in the U.S. economy have helped push 10-year Treasury yields up nearly 30 basis points this month to 10-month highs and within inches of their highest levels since 2007.

Higher yields often weigh heavily on technology stocks by decreasing the value of their future profit.

August has been particularly challenging for the fund, which has lost ground every trading day but two this month. The fund gained 0.75% on Friday, its best single-day performance since July 31.

ARK Invest did not respond to a request for comment on this story.