NEW YORK, July 12 (Reuters) - The flagship fund of star stockpicker Cathie Wood hit an 11-month high Wednesday, extending a rally that has been powered by bets that inflation would fall rapidly and benefit the sort of speculative technology stocks she is known for. The $8.4 billion ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK.P) rose 0.6% in morning trading Wednesday to its highest level since August 2022. Wood's fund was among the worst-performing U.S. equity funds overall in 2022 as she continued to downplay the impact of inflation and said that deflation would be the larger issue driving markets. Lower interest rates help unprofitable or other early-stage companies by lowering their borrowing costs and increasing the value of future profits. "Anything that puts interest rate hikes at bay is definitely positive for any small-cap or speculative tech stock," he said.

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Persons: stockpicker Cathie Wood, Jamie Cox, David Randall Organizations: YORK, Coinbase Global Inc, Sciences, Commerce Department, Federal Reserve, Harris Financial Group, Thomson