Ark's Wood Remains Bullish On Tesla As U.S. Recession Fears Rise

Star stock picker Cathie Wood of Ark Invest remained bullish on top holding Tesla Inc on Tuesday despite growing fears of a U.S. recession and shutdowns of the car maker's Shanghai factory due to spiking coronavirus cases.

"What we said during COVID about innovation solving problems will move into overdrive," she told a webinar, with Tesla poised to "deliver truly exponential growth for many, many years" as it expands its autonomous driving programs.

Wood's bullish stance on technology comes as yields of two-year Treasuries have moved above those of 10-year Treasuries in recent weeks, which is often considered a precursor to a recession.

Wood, whose ARK Innovation ETF was the top-performing U.S. equity fund in 2020, said that she expects "truly disruptive innovation" will come back into favor as investors turn to technology to solve economic problems.

Tesla is down 6% for the year to date, while Wood's second-largest position, Teladoc Health Inc, is down nearly 26% over the same time.

Overall, ARK Innovation is down 36.7% for the year to date, a performance that puts it in the worst percentile among the 615 U.S. Mid-Cap Growth funds tracked by Morningstar. Shares of the fund rose 0.5% in afternoon trading Tuesday.

Investors have pulled approximately a net $791 billion out of the fund over last three weeks, according to Lipper data.

That three-week losing streak was its longest since November.