December got off to a sluggish start on Monday. Cathie Wood was paying attention. The founder and CEO of Ark Invest took advantage of the dip in prices to go shopping for her family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). She tends to be busier on the market down days in fleshing out her publicly traded portfolios.
Ark added to existing positions in Robinhood Markets (HOOD +4.09%), Shopify (SHOP +5.99%), and Deere (DE +0.99%) on Monday. Let's take a closer look at the three fresh purchases.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Robinhood Markets
Shares of Robinhood Markets declined 4% on Monday, outpacing the market's more modest declines. It doesn't take a lot to figure out why the online trading platform stumbled. Robinhood may have gotten its start as a place for young investors and speculators to engage in commission-free stock trading, but that's no longer the case among the asset classes available on the platform.
Options and crypto made up 78% of the transaction-based revenue in Robinhood's latest quarter. Stocks were a distant third, accounting for just 12% of the mix among the asset categories on Robinhood. Investors in digital currencies began to feel a chill in the air ahead of another potential crypto winter, with Bitcoin (BTC +7.92%) experiencing its largest single-day drop in eight months. It has now surrendered more than 30% of its value since peaking just two months ago. Many crypto denominations have taken even harder hits.
NASDAQ: HOOD
Key Data Points
Options trading remains the top dog on Robinhood. The platform's recent move to embrace event contracts as a proxy for wagering on sporting events will make sure it stays that way. However, the summertime pop in Bitcoin was the biggest contributor to Robinhood's blowout performance in its latest quarter. Cryptocurrency transaction-based revenue more than quadrupled for the company.
Robinhood sliding on Bitcoin's weakness makes sense. The next-gen trading pioneer's stock also peaked in October, but it has only declined 20% since then.
Trading activity is the biggest driver for Robinhood given its scalability advantages. Net income more than tripled -- up 271% -- in its latest quarter on the surge in activity for its 26.8 million funded accounts. Its net profit margin clocked in at an impressive 44%. With market returns cooling across asset categories since October, Robinhood investors are bracing for what could be a challenging fourth quarter. Where some investors see a potential pothole, Wood sees an opening to plant a seed.
NASDAQ: SHOP
Key Data Points
2. Shopify
Robinhood didn't suffer the biggest hit on Monday among these three stocks. Shopify fell 6% on the first trading day of December. The timing may seem cruel, as the online marketplace platform lives for Cyber Monday. It even began the day waxing enthusiastically on the socials about the pivotal shopping day for e-commerce.
Cyber Monday: Black Friday's victory lap
-- Shopify (@Shopify) December 1, 2025
Unfortunately for Shopify, it would go on to experience what it described as a partial outage. The downtime appears to be largely limited to the merchant admin end of the platform, but it did make it challenging for Shopify subscribers to react to the activity on their digital storefronts.
Shopify stock is still beating the market this year, even after Monday's slide. However, the iconic stock that was a staple of growth investing a decade ago has been lagging behind the market over the past five years. With back-to-back quarters of accelerating top-line growth, it's easy to see why Wood saw the stock's retreat this week as a buying opportunity.
NYSE: DE
Key Data Points
3. Deere
Wood wasn't buying only the names on the way down on Monday. Deere rose 4% to kick off the new week of trading. Its hit came during last week's holiday-abridged trading action. The maker of agricultural, commercial, and construction heavy machinery experienced a 7% decline in its shares in the final two trading sessions of last week after posting disappointing financial results.
The quarter itself was fine, coasting past expectations on both ends of the income statement. The backhoe here came in guidance. Deere warned of a challenging year ahead, particularly in its business with large commercial farm operators. It sees sales sliding 20% for its large agricultural business, putting a damper on the modest growth it's modeling elsewhere. As a global player, Deere must navigate the tariff war and the uncertain global economy without literally skipping a beat. Ark Invest naturally feels comfortable with Deere at its current levels to continue producing earnings season beats.
