Q1 2024 Fund Webinar

Broad-based global equity indexes^[1] appreciated in the first quarter, despite a drop in the number of U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cuts expected in 2024. Importantly, the Fed began to communicate that employment gains would not derail the decline in interest rates and that inflation is the much more important policy gauge. While the consensus forecast is for a soft landing, ARK still expects that a loss of pricing power will force corporations into employment cutbacks and a harder-than-expected landing. Indeed, the US economy seems to have been in a rolling recession, depressing sectors like housing, autos, and commercial real estate while inventories continue to build. In response, the potential growth in ARK’s Five Innovation Platforms^[2] could play an outsized role in pulling the economy out of recession, salvaging corporate margins as inflation gives way to deflation in many sectors.