The stock market in recent months has become a struggle between tomorrow’s trading and the live-for-today buy offer, and in the past week it has been a mess.
Shares valued on the promise of a transformed future have been sold hard on behalf of those who are ready to thrive in today’s economic renaissance. However, after last week’s irregular swings that culminated in Friday’s sales boom and powerful bullish reversal, will these opponents be able to coexist more peacefully for a while?
Stocks of “disruptive technology” and pre-prescription newbies and speculative SPACs with a high history-to-substance ratio have been in full flux since mid-February.
The fixation on the ARK Invest ETFs of the hunger party was appropriate, irresistible and probably now exaggerated. The flagship of the ARK Innovation Fund (ARKK) in downtown Friday morning had lost more than 30% in about three weeks. The fund has been a short sale so popular that stocks are hard to borrow and Wall Street tables are busy creating synthetic versions of the ETF that hedge funds can bet on.
Was it a short-term capitulation in this subsector, preceding a 10% jump in ARKK from late morning to Friday’s close?