Real Estate Leads Amid Virus Fears
U.S. equity markets dipped this week by the most in four months on concerns of a potential outbreak of a deadly coronavirus that has infected individuals in nearly a dozen countries outside of China.
The S&P 500 declined 1.0% while oil prices dipped by the most in a year, helping to pull down the 10-year Treasury yield to the lowest level in three months.
Lower rates and a broader "flight-to-safety" helped to power real estate and other domestic, yield-oriented equity sectors to another week of gains. REITs gained nearly 1% on the week.
Continuing the theme of 2019, real estate continues to be a source of stability and strength for the domestic economy. Low mortgage rates continue to support robust demand for housing.
The streak of strong housing data continued with Existing Home Sales data on Wednesday morning. Existing Sales rose 10.8% year-over-year to a 5.54 million-unit rate, beating consensus estimates of 5.43M.
