ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood calls the US economy a "coiled spring" ready for powerful growth. Her 2026 outlook points to sectors like housing and manufacturing that have been in recession despite overall GDP growth. She cites housing sales dropping 40% since 2021 and contracting manufacturing as signs of pent-up potential.

Wood attributes the coming rebound to deregulation, lower taxes, and falling inflation. She projects nominal GDP growth could hit 6-8%, driven by 5-7% productivity gains and inflation possibly turning negative. She expects the effective corporate tax rate to fall toward 10% as accelerated depreciation boosts refunds for manufacturers and researchers.

Technology is central to her thesis. Wood forecasts non-farm productivity growth could accelerate to 4-6% annually, fueled by AI, robotics, and energy storage. She notes AI training costs are falling 75% per year. For investors, she highlighted bitcoin's 360% rise since 2022 versus gold's 166%, calling it a diversification tool with low correlation to other assets.