Real estate services firms have seen their shares slide in Friday afternoon trading after another round of hotter-than-expected economic data spurred a slump in Treasury bonds.
Re/Max Holdings ( RMAX ), -3.4% , Redfin ( NASDAQ: RDFN ), -6.1% , Zillow Group ( NASDAQ: Z ) -2.9% , eXp World Holdings ( NASDAQ: EXPI ), -5.6% , Compass ( NYSE: COMP ), -1.9% , Opendoor Technologies ( NASDAQ: OPEN ), -9.6% , Offerpad Solutions ( NYSE: OPAD ), -2% and Vacasa ( NASDAQ: VCSA ), -6.2% , all retreated as of shortly before 3:30 p.m. ET.
The main drivers of the bearish intraday price action featured three catalysts: 1) New home sales unexpectedly surged in January; 2) January's consumer spending jumped more than economists had expected as PCE inflation accelerated; and 3) consumer sentiment for February rose to a one-year high.
The resilient data was unwelcome news to market participants as the Federal Reserve likely will be inclined to keep rates higher for longer. That scenario is certainly being priced in as the monetary policy-sensitive two-year U.S. Treasury bond yield ( US2Y ) drove up 11 basis points to 4.80%, the highest level seen since July 2007. At the same time, the 10-year T-bond yield ( US10Y ) gained 7 bps to 3.95%, marking a multi-month high.
Rising Treasury yields lead to higher mortgage rates thus putting pressure on the already troubled housing market in terms of affordability.
Earlier, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester called for a lift in the central bank's benchmark rate to "somewhat above" 5%.
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Zillow, other real estate services stocks skid as resilient econ data fuel T-bond slump