Daily Recap: REITs Gain | Stocks Flat | Home Sales Jump

September 19, 2019 | Hoya Capital

Daily Recap: REITs Gain | Stocks Flat | Home Sales Jump Uncategorized Sep 19 Written By On a relatively quite day following the closely-watched Federal Reserve rate cut announcement yesterday, the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) finished roughly flat on the day, climbing less than 0.1 while the Nasdaq ETF (QQQ) finished higher by 0.2%. Adding to it's 2% gains so far this week,, the broad-based REIT ETF (VNQ) finished slightly higher, gaining 0.2% on the day.

The single family rental, cell tower, and data center REIT sectors were the relative outperformers on the day while the mall, hotel, and apartment REIT sectors were the relative laggards. The Hoya Capital Housing Index , the benchmark that tracks the performance of the US housing industry, finished the day fractionally lower, led to the upside by the Real Estate Insurance and Real Estate Brokerage and Technology sectors. Top individual performers on the day included Realogy (RLGY), Re/Max (RMAX), Radian (RDN), and Invitation Homes (INVH).

The strong week for housing data continued with better-than-expected existing home sales data. While homebuilder earnings results and most other forward-looking metrics have indicated for some time that a housing market recovery is on tap for 2H19, the slower-reacting home sales data had been stubbornly slow to reflect these improved conditions. Well, patience is a virtue, as the pickup in single-family housing market activity is finally being reflected in the sales data.

Existing home sales data beat estimates, recording its second straight year-over-year increase in sales following nearly a year-and-a-half of year-over-year declines. Existing sales rose by a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate of 2.6% from last year. With gains of 25% so far this year, the broad-based REIT ETFs ( VNQ and IYR ) continue to outperform the S&P 500, which has climbed roughly 20%. The US Housing sector has climbed roughly 27% this year led by the 49% surge in Homebuilders (ITB) and strong gains from the Home Furnishings ...