FFR News and Press, First Trust FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index Fund From 06/12/21

U.S. equity markets rallied to fresh record highs this past week as long-term interest rates retreated despite inflation data showing the highest annual rise in consumer prices in decades. A seemingly insatiable bid for Treasury Bonds - a counterintuitive trend that some analysts like...

Vaccines are here, masks are off, and sports stadiums are full. Office desks around the country remain eerily empty, however, as office utilization rates remain a fraction of pre-COVID levels. For many corporations, there's no going back - at least not to pre-COVID norms. Survey data ...

The positive reverberations from the post-pandemic "housing boom" are now being felt across U.S. rental markets as single-family housing rents are suddenly soaring at the fastest rate on record. Riding the rental revival, Single-Family Rental REITs are the single-best performing ...

U.S. equity markets flirted with fresh record-highs this week as concerns regarding economic "overheating" cooled after employment data showed that job growth fell short of expectations for the second straight month. Finishing on the cusp of fresh record-highs, the S&P 500 rallied...

The Global Market Index’s (GMI) expected risk premium held steady at 5.9% annualized in May, matching the previous month’s estimate. The framework for estimating equilibrium returns was initially outlined in a 1974 paper by Professor Bill Sharpe. Keep in mind, too, t...

The major asset classes delivered across-the-board gains for a second month in a row in May. Everything apart from cash was up last month, led by a sizzling rally in foreign inflation-linked government bonds. The FTSE Russell World Inflation Index ex-US surged 4.0% last month, the...

No more "Free Rent." Renters will receive an unwelcome surprise with the next renewal offer as rents across the country are suddenly surging at the fastest rate in a half-decade. The demographic and pandemic-driven boom in household formations has clashed with record-low housing suppl...

U.S. equity markets rallied this past week as long-term inflation expectations eased following a lukewarm slate of economic data and as massive new government spending programs face diminishing public support. Snapping a two-week skid, the S&P 500 rallied 1.2% on the week. Bitcoin...

It's back to "business as usual" for net lease REITs, which endured punishing declines early in the pandemic before ultimately exhibiting impressive resilience in the face of stiff macroeconomic headwinds. Acquisition-fueled growth - the "bread and butter" of the sector - has kic...

REITs extended their 2021 winning streak yet again with a +6.2% average total return in April. Large cap REITs (+8.78%) outperformed again in April, while micro caps (-0.70%) declined for the second month in a row. Eighty-nine percent of REIT securities had a positive total r...