Regarding the usual montlhy market update, Cathie Wood – the star fund manager and chief executive of ARK Investment – said that China is a “leading indicator” for EVs and that the used car market is where she is expecting possible losses after a surge in values.
Later on Twitter, Wood said “China is a leading indicator of a change in the consumer preference for EVs,” responding to a tweet from ARK Invest analyst, Sam Korus, who also enhanced that gas-powered auto sales were down roughly 4%. while those for EVs were up around 145%.
Wood noted in her tweet that U.S. “gas-powered car sales are likely to struggle, especially now that used car inventories, as measured by Manheim, are roughly 40% above normal at wholesale and retail.”
ARK Analyst Sam Korus noted that China Passenger Auto sales were up 4.4% up to 20.1 Million units last year.
“We would submit that they might be looking at losses,” Wood said, referring to internal-combustion-engine car companies that managed to outperform electric-vehicle manufacturers
First EV Buy of 2022 for ARK
Cathie Wood raised its exposure in the Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng on the dip.
Ark Invest bought this week more 14,859 shares that worth $633,439 (based on the day’s closing price) marking the money managing firm’s first buy into any electric vehicle stock in 2022.
Xpeng ’s stock closed 7.34% higher at $45.76 a share on Tuesday.
Wood also said that she wouldn’t be surprised to see “a bloodbath in the used car market,” with valuations tumbling in the coming year into 2023 as prices that have surged because of supply-chain bottlenecks and a pop in demand recede.