Employment Friday delivered a jobs report that might have looked scary on the surface to some. Cathie Wood says it is not as bad as it looks, and that the bigger economic story is unfolding underneath the headline. The federal deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio sits at 5.6%, a level Cathie Wood says echoes the early 1980s under Reaganomics. She believes that if productivity and technology adoption keep accelerating the way ARK expects, that ratio could move closer to 5% by year end, even though most forecasters see it as unlikely. On inflation, recent data has surprised to the low side. The most recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading, from June, came in at negative 0.4% month over month, Producer Price Index (PPI)at negative 0.3%, and the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) deflator at just 0.1%. Cathie Wood believes deflation, not inflation, is the bigger risk ahead, particularly for companies that fail to adopt AI and productivity tools. The dollar is a focus too. ARK's Kalshi-powered forecast points to the US Dollar Index reaching 102.6 this year. That is notable given the prevailing narrative that foreign governments are abandoning US Treasuries. Cathie Wood points out that Japan's recent intervention involved selling euros to buy yen, not selling dollars, a distinction she believes matters. On oil, ARK sees a supply glut building. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) left the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in May and its production has surged to an all-time high. Cathie Wood believes oil prices could fall significantly from here, which she views as a deflationary tailwind for most of the world. Capital spending has broken out of a 30-year range, and Cathie Wood believes fears about an AI hype bubble are overblown. She sees this as the earliest stage of a technology revolution with a long runway ahead. On crypto, Cathie Wood flagged that Bitcoin relative to gold is finding its footing again, and that she believes Bitcoin and stablecoins are likely to be the two biggest beneficiaries of the shift toward agentic commerce.

Will AI agents settle their payments in Bitcoin or stablecoins? This is one of the questions that kicks off a wide-ranging conversation on open money and open intelligence in a new episode of "Bitcoin Brainstorm."

What happens when a trading app becomes your bank, your broker, and your retirement account all at once? @GrousARK explains how Robinhood's Gold subscription is doing that, and why ARK sees attachment rates more than doubling by 2031 in our new Stock Stories series.

There is only one space outside of AI with standout growth. It's prediction markets. Total notional volume for the first 7 months of 2026 is up ~13.7x YoY. Jan-Jul 2025 volume was $17B. The same window in 2026 hit $236B. The biggest winner of this explosive growth is Kalshi. Kalshi has grown its share of the market from roughly 20% in the first 7 months of 2025 to over 70% most recently, in July 2026. (US-only market share is even higher) s/o to @datadashboards

I believe Crypto is going through the biggest consolidation phase in its history, far more profound than in previous bear markets. The market structure has changed. Capital is much more selective, and teams and exchanges without real PMF are shutting down. Revenue concentration is now at all-time highs across almost every layer apps, middleware, L1s etc: @HyperliquidX and @Pumpfun account for 67% of total app revenue. Add @ethena , and the top three generate almost 80%. I expect this to intensify over the coming months: much more M&A, Chapter 11 filings, shutdowns, and acqui-hires. This is extremely bullish for the space.

Is a crypto application worth more than the blockchain it runs on? Digital Assets Director of Research @LorenzoARK answers for askARK. Learn more by watching our deep dive into the Decentralized Finance Applications section from Big Ideas on our YouTube.

Starship’s successful splashdown was perhaps game-changing news for #SpaceX#; yet, the stock dropped further below its IPO price today. The equity market is climbing a “wall of worry”. Bull markets do not end in this way. They end when everyone believes the sky is the limit!

“We're at our best when we're competing.” @CathieDWood on @FoxBusiness with @MariaBartiromo on why China's new AI models are a good thing for America. ARK has taken a close look at DeepSeek and Kimi K3: cheaper, yes, but far less efficient.

SpaceX $SPCX went from private startup to the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history. ARK was there for both chapters. First through the ARK Venture Fund. Now through the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF $ARKX, ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF $ARKQ, ARK Innovation ETF $ARKK, and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF $ARKW as well. Learn more:

Friday's successful Starship splashdown and its relatively unscathed heatshield were much more meaningful than most realize. If SpaceX can master starship reuseability this year that would increase our 2031 revenue and EBIT expectations for the company by roughly 3 fold and improve 2036 prospects by 6 to 7 fold. Even 2027 reuseability would put them ahead of schedule in our modeling and meaningfully improve both 2031 and 2036 prospects. The difference between a reuseable Starship top stage and disposable one is the difference between $570 per kg to launch and $100 per kg to launch. This allows the company to train more of its precious capital on satellite manufacture scaling rather than replenishing a very useful starship fleet.

"They're very lucky to not be public companies right now." @GrousARK on "The Brainstorm" on why OpenAI and Anthropic's stocks would get crushed if they traded today, and why the real value is shifting elsewhere.

Our new blog "AI-Mediated Multiomics Is Transforming Healthcare Economics" written by Multiomics Portfolio Manager and Director of Research @Ovid_ARK, PhD is now available! Read to learn about how the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF $ARKG taps the investment opportunity.