The Federal Reserve is slated to slash its benchmark interest rate again this week — a move that likely will give financial markets a boost.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Friday up 37 points for the day and closer to its all-time high in July. Easing tension between the U.S. and China over trade and the prospect of another rate cut also gave the S&P 500 a slight bump; it was up 0.6 percent last week.
As for real estate stocks, last week’s performance was more of a mixed bag.
An analysis of 28 real estate stocks monitored by The Real Deal found that they outperformed the S&P 500 last week, rising over 3 percent. But on Friday alone, 19 of those companies saw their share prices plunge. (The stocks are a mix of brokerage firms, real estate investment trusts and other real estate services firms.)
Data giant CoStar Group’s stock fell the most last week among the stocks TRD tracks, dropping about 7.7 percent to close Friday at $570.11. The company saw its second-quarter revenue grow 16 percent year over year in the second quarter, thanks to a growth of bookings on Apartment.com. But CEO Andrew Florence also said on the quarterly earnings call that commercial listings platform LoopNet.com has not seen the same monetization.
The top performer was real estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank, which last week expanded its capital markets investment sales division in New York City with the hiring of three new executives. The firm’s stock rose about 14.4 percent last week, closing at $10.11.
Meanwhile, the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund, an index heavily weighted in the real estate sector, fell about 3 percent. And industry group Nareit’s All-REIT Index saw returns fall 0.81 percent for the week as of Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Fed is expected to cut the federal fund target rates by 25 basis points. After making steady increases since 2015, the Fed in July also cut rates by the same amount, setting the range to 2.00 to 2.25 percent.