March Madness: Hope Emerges After Punishing Week For REITs

• Limit down, limit up. The ongoing coronavirus crisis roiled global markets on a historically volatile week that marked the end to the nearly decade-long post-recession bull market for U.S. equities.

• Kicked-off with a historic crash in crude oil prices and ending with a furious late-Friday afternoon rally, the S&P 500 finished the week lower by more than 9%.

• There were few places to hide as tremors of instability shook the global financial markets. The previously outperforming REITs ended the week off by nearly 12% while homebuilders dipped 25%.

• Darkest before the dawn? Policymakers, central banks, and private businesses sprung to action to ease the economic fallout from the transitory shutdown of large swaths of the global economy.

• Encouraging indications emerged from South Korea and China which have seen a dramatic decline in new CV-19 cases and a gradual return to normalcy within weeks of the outbreak’s peak.

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