No Deal Yet • REITs Lag • Dividend Increases

Summary

• U.S. equity markets retreated from record-highs as investors await Congress to finalize the long-delayed fiscal stimulus renewal and assess the early progress on coronavirus vaccine distribution.
• Finishing the week higher by 1.0%, the S&P 500 finished lower by 0.35% today while the Dow declined 123 points. Small-Caps and Mid-Caps lagged today but outperformed on the week.
• Real estate equities were the laggards on the day as the broad-based Equity REIT ETF (VNQ) finished lower 2.0% today with all 18 property sectors in negative territory.
• Three mortgage REITs boosted their dividends this morning: Hunt Companies (HCFT), Two Harbors (TWO), and Western Asset Mortgage (WMC). Diversified equity REIT Alexander & Baldwin (ALEX) resumed its dividend yesterday afternoon.
• We'll have a full analysis of REIT Dividend Season and this week's price action in our Real Estate Weekly Recap published tomorrow morning.

Real Estate Daily Recap

U.S. equity markets retreated from record-highs as investors await Congress to finalize the long-delayed fiscal stimulus renewal and assess the early progress on coronavirus vaccine distribution. Finishing the week higher by 0.8%, the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) finished lower by 0.4% today while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) declined 123 points. Real estate equities were the laggards on the day as the broad-based Equity REIT ETF (VNQ) finished lower 1.9% today with all 18 property sectors in negative territory. The Mortgage REIT ETF (REM) declined 0.5% on the day.

The first week of coronavirus vaccine distribution has seemingly progressed as-expected with roughly 3 million doses of Pfizer's (PFE) vaccine shipped and should ramp-up next week following the anticipated approval of the Moderna (MRNA) vaccine and as many as 40 million Americans - 15% of the U.S. population - could be vaccinated over the next two weeks. 6 of the 11 GICS equity sectors finished in negative territory today, dragged on the downside by the Energy (XLE), Commerical Real Estate (XLRE), and Financials (XLF) sectors. We'll have a full analysis of REIT Dividend Season and this week's price action in our Real Estate Weekly Recap published tomorrow morning.

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Disclosure: A complete list of holdings and Real Estate and Housing Index definitions and holdings are available at HoyaCapital.com. Hoya Capital Real Estate advises an Exchange Traded Fund listed on the NYSE. Hoya Capital is long all components in the Hoya Capital Housing 100 Index.

Additional Disclosure: It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Index performance cited in this commentary does not reflect the performance of any fund or other account managed or serviced by Hoya Capital Real Estate. Data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Information presented is believed to be factual and up-to-date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy.