Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest buys 840,000 Nurix shares

In today’s top stories, ARK Invest bolsters its genomics fund holdings, the US invests $2.8bn into EV batteries and Elon Musk sets his sights on a $4trn Tesla valuation. Meanwhile, Intel shares attract the attention of investors looking to buy the dip and Google’s Waymo launches its driverless taxi service in Los Angeles. 

Cathie Wood scoops up pharma stock

Bloomberg data shows that the star fund manager from ARK Invest has been buying up shares in biopharmaceutical company Nurix Therapeutics every trading day since 10 October. The firm’s ARK Genomic Revolution ETF [ARKG] has added more than 840,000 shares in the last eight sessions alone. The fund started buying the stock after it fell more than 75% from its January 2021 peak, and continued to do even as its ETF’s trading activity stalled this week.

Driverless taxi rollout in LA

Google’s Waymo has set its sights on Los Angeles as its next location to launch its self-driving taxi service. The autonomous vehicle company said that it will begin the service across several neighbourhoods in the area, beginning with rides just for test participants – a phase that’s already underway with its San Francisco fleet. It began offering public rides in Phoenix in 2020, the only city where it has done so yet.

Elon Musk targets $4trn Tesla valuation

Elon Musk told investors on the earnings call that a $5 to $10bn share buyback had been discussed with the board for next year. The highly anticipated buyback and statement from Musk that he believes Tesla’s [TSLA] market cap will exceed Apple’s [AAPL] and Saudi Aramco’s [2222.SR] combined value sent shares up 0.8% Wednesday. Tesla shares lost more than those gains the following day, however, suggesting analysts are right to be wary of Musk’s claims.

US injects $2.8bn into EV batteries

President Joe Biden announced $2.8bn in grants for 20 companies including Albermarle [ALB], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Talon Metals [TLO.TO] and Syrah Technologies — a subsidiary of Syrah Resources [SYAAF] — to produce EV batteries for the US. The grants are part of the Biden Administration’s efforts to shore up domestic manufacturing. Following suit is BMW, which plans to invest $1.7bn in its US operations to build EVs and batteries.

Intel goes on sale

With semiconductor stocks seeing a rapid decline this year amid waning demand, there could be some bargains. Hedge fund manager David Neuhauser told CNBC that Intel’s [INTC] halved valuation looks “really attractive”. The company pays a dividend of more than 5% and “has a very strong US footprint”, however, the founder of Livermore Partners warns investors to not expect a quick recovery and instead take a long-term view.

Cohesive Capital’s John Barber on private equity

John Barber, of Cohesive Capital and previously Citigroup, has been in private equity for 30 years. In the latest episode of Opto Sessions, he discusses the advantage that private markets have over public equities, how co-investment works and why collaboration is key. “It’s pretty clear that private equity has outperformed public equity,” Barber highlights.

Growth stocks set to rebound

Prices of UK equities are under pressure, yet there are signs following Jeremy Hunt’s reversal of the tax cuts announced in the mini-budget that investors could soon start buying back into growth again. FTSE growth stocks, like Ashtead Group [AHT.L], Compass Group [CPG.L], Pearson [PSON.L] and Rentokil Initial [RTO.L], could get a boost from renewed confidence in the market – assuming that long-dated UK bond yields aren’t pushed up even higher.