No Deal Yet • REITs Lag • Dividend Increases

December 18, 2020 | Hoya Capital

No Deal Yet • REITs Lag • Dividend Increases Daily Recap Dec 18 Written By 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 ...