posted 01-14-2021 12:38 PM               

ARK Invest, founded by technology disruption guru Cathie Wood, is planning a new exchange-traded fund focused on space stocks, based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wood, for her part, runs the ARK Innovation ETF (ticker: ARKK). Tesla (TSLA) is the fund's largest position, which helped the ETF post strong 2020 performance. The ETF rose almost 150% this past year as Tesla stock tacked on more than 740%, and it brought in roughly $11 billion of cash from investors in 2020, according to Bloomberg data.

Now the space industry looks ripe for its own surge in investor interest—in part because of Tesla founder Elon Musk, who also runs spacecraft and rocket manufacturer SpaceX. The company has pioneered the use of reusable rockets, driving down the cost of reaching low-earth orbit. Those falling costs are opening up opportunities for companies looking at new satellite-based services and other business models. SpaceX itself is planning to eventually offer high-speed, space-based internet access across the globe.

SpaceX is private, so ARK's space ETF won't be able to buy shares of that firm just yet. But it can buy several others, and the potential demand from a new ETF had many space stocks moving Thursday.

posted 01-16-2021 06:27 PM               

Space stocks, including two SPACs, are jumping after word of Ark Invest's coming $ARKX space exploration ETF. Premarket trading:

$SRAC up 30%
$NPA up 17%
$SPCE up 15%
$MAXR up 15%
$GSAT up 11%
$ORBC up 8%
$LORL up 7%
$IRDM up 4%
$VSAT up 4%