Market Commentary Blog

There's a $2 trillion stimulus fund you haven't heard about, and it’s growing bigger every day.

Most sectors were up, including a 10.3% total return for timber REITs, a 6.9% total return for specialty REITs and 6.7% total return for commercial financing mREITs.

The two largest risks to the economy from recent layoffs are that job losses spread from the front-line sectors into the broader economy, and that temporary layoffs translate into permanent job losses.

Putting the pieces of connected commerce together in the COVID-19 era.

Nine of the 14 REIT sectors posted a positive total return.

Using the public data along with the privately collected Nareit data, this research note presents a fuller picture of the industry’s rent collection for April.

The business closures and social distancing designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 had a significant impact on demand for commercial real estate, vacancies and rent growth across the major property sectors.

Last week the index posted a total return of negative 4.5%, the second week of single-digit moves after much sharper gyrations both up and down in the early stages of the crisis.

We are not expecting a “V” shaped recovery because some effects of the virus are likely to remain for quite some time. This news on durable goods orders, though, is consistent with underlying business fundamentals remaining intact for now despite the shutdown.

Fifty-four listed equity REITs responded between April 8 and April 15, representing most property sectors and almost $418 billion in equity market capitalization or 44% of the FTSE Nareit All Equity REIT equity market capitalization.

In more normal times a weekly move up or down of nearly 4% would be major news, but in a period of heightened volatility during the covid-19 crisis, this is the smallest move in quite a while.

The markets have gained ground in two of the past three weeks despite news of record levels of jobless claims as firms close to curb the spread of COVID-19.