March 8 (Reuters) - ARK Investment Management Chief Executive Cathie Wood defended her strategy on Monday, arguing the recent outperformance of value and economically sensitive cyclical sectors will make for a stronger bull market and help her funds in the longer term.
ARK's popular exchange traded funds have been battered by a recent shift away from the high-flying technology stocks that led markets higher for most of 2020, with the ARK Innovation exchange traded fund off 11% year-to-date.
"Right now the market is broadening out. In an underlying sense the bull market is strengthening and that will play to our benefit over the longer term," Wood told CNBC in an interview.
Wood shot to prominence over the last year with outsized bets on companies such as Tesla and Square that surged during the pandemic, attracting $14.84 billion in inflows over the past 12 months, according to Lipper data.
But technology stocks have faltered in recent weeks, as rising bond yields and expectations of an economic rebound spur a powerful rotation out of the "stay-at-home" names that drove markets higher for most of 2020 and into companies that would most benefit from an economic reopening.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq on Monday confirmed a correction as it closed 10% lower than its record close in February.
Wood noted that the rapid increase in interest rates has "shaken a lot of investors" and helped trigger a rotation into value sectors which was has been "part of the reason for Ark's setbacks."
The stock picker also pointed to Invitae Corp, another holding which is getting "hammered" despite being "one of the most important companies in the genomic revolution." Shares of the ETF's top holding, Tesla Motors, fell 5.8% on Monday and are off more than 20% this year.
"We're becoming more and more optimistic about our portfolios in the selloff," Wood said.
The Ark ETF lost 5.8% on Monday and is 29.6% below its record close of Feb. 12.
(Reporting By Sinéad Carew; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Richard Pullin)
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