10 things before the opening bell
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1. Cathie Wood has had a tough 2021. The star stock-picker had expected a 20% gain for her Ark Invest flagship fund after it soared 150% in 2020, but that hasn't panned out this year. Instead, Ark Invest's Disruptive Innovation has dropped more than 20% in 2021— its worst-ever return since its inception.
The downturn in work-from-home stocks and unprofitable names in tech dragged down Ark's flagship fund over the past several months, as sell-offs in Zoom Video and Teladoc more than offset gains in Tesla.
And Wood's flagship ETF isn't an outlier. In fact, five of Ark's six active ETFs have delivered negative returns year to date. The worst performing fund, Ark Genomic Revolution ETF, is down about 33% this year.
Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has notched a long string of record highs and is up about 30% in 2021. But Wood hasn't wavered. In fact, her optimism seems to have only increased — she predicted earlier this month that Ark's fund returns are set to quadruple in the next five years.
2. Elon Musk's super-sale of Tesla stock is just about done. He exercised an option to buy about 1.6 million shares on Tuesday and sold over 934,000 shares for $1.02 billion. Take a look at what this means for how much stock he holds now.
3. Insider compiled a list of the top-ranked fund managers of 2021. These leaders picked winners in turnaround sectors like energy and financials. Here are the stocks that helped them crush the market — and what they own now for further gains.
4. Earnings on deck: FuelCell Energy Inc., Phase Holographic Imaging, and HIDAY HIDAKA Corp., all reporting.
5. Wedbush said Tesla stock will soar 28% in the new year. The electric vehicle company is set to double its production capacity, and China remains a key growth "linchpin" for its success. Here are Wedbush's base-case and bull-case price targets for Tesla in 2022.
6. Traders continue to make waves on Reddit's WallStreetBets. As the year winds down, online retail traders have their eyes on Robinhood and Meta. Here are the 10 most popular stocks on Reddit right now.
7. A deal for Colin Kaepernick's SPAC unraveled because the former NFL star wouldn't do TV press for it. Kaepernick balked at requests to talk publicly about the pending deal with The Change Company, per the WSJ. Here's what else to know.
8. Ready Player Me wants to build a "passport for the metaverse" after a $13 million funding round. The startup envisions people using its avatars across different virtual worlds — and big name venture capitalists have backed the project.
9. What you didn't know about 29-year-old crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. After months of speaking with his closest friends, family, and colleagues, here are 10 little-known facts Insider learned about the rising superstar.
10. The ultimate guide to 10 top altcoins and their real-world applications. Seasoned investors have a grip on which altcoins are worth betting on — and many are betting that their tech is the future of crypto.
Compiled by Phil Rosen. Feedback? Email prosen@insider.com or tweet @philrosenn.
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