FRI News and Press, First Trust S&P REIT Index Fund From 02/10/23

Summary Fed anticipates job losses and they usually cut as the job market is transitioning from job creation to job loss. Housing is the most interest rate-sensitive part of the economy. If the Fed needs to hike more than what’s being anticipated that higher dividend will hel...

Summary A mild recession is coming in the US. Unemployment and migration trends are shifting. How will these factors play out across different states and regions? In 2022, 28 states registered a record low unemployment rate, as demographic trends and pandemic-related disruptions continu...

Summary On a rolling 3-month basis, the decline in mortgage rates continues to rank as some of the largest since the late 1990s. Given the alleviation on the rates front, purchase applications have been rebounding. The 68% month-over-month increase in applications has been the large...

Summary Markets posted strong gains in January, but will it last? Impact of China's reopening on global markets. Is this the year for a rebound in fixed income? Global markets have had a positive start to the year. But the year ahead likely won’t be withou...

Summary Going by most observers, there have been two major housing bubbles in the 21st Century. The inflation phase for the first housing bubble had its origins in August 2000 and peaked in March 2007. This more recent bubble has had several phases, but using the measure of median n...

Parachute, a leading start-up lender, becomes the first organization in Canada to use FICO® Score 10 and take part in the FICO® Score Open Access program Highlights: 90% of top Canadian lenders and credit unions use FICO® Scores. Parachute, a leading sta...

Summary Office REITs have been far-and-away the worst-performing property sector since the start of the pandemic, as depressed utilization rates and recession concerns have curbed office space demand. Work-From-Home-Forever? Occupiers due for renewal have been somewhat-reluctant to cut ...

Summary Data revisions affecting median new home sale prices and median household income confirm October 2022 as the all-time record low for the affordability of new homes in the U.S. Mortgage payment on the median new home sold in the U.S. during December 2022 would consume 41.6% of th...

Summary After a year best forgotten, 2023 has started out with a bang. January was a strong month that gave equity investors a timely relief rally. While this was a welcomed development, I am concerned that equity prices are getting too disconnected from reality. We have a challenging m...

Summary U.S. equity markets extended their rebound this week after the Federal Reserve slowed its pace of interest rate hikes while strong employment data alongside cooling wage pressures supported "soft landing" prospects. Gaining for the fourth week in the past five, the S&P 500 a...