Bearish Signals Generated on 3 Real Estate ETFs

Interest rates in the U.S. have been rising over the last six months, not the Fed Funds rates that the Federal Reserve controls, but the 10-year and 30-year Treasuries. If we look at a daily chart for the 10-year treasury yield, it has jumped from 0.504% last August to a recent high of 1.193%.

The trek higher has been steady and consistent. If this was a stock chart I was looking at, I would be looking to buy it the next time it cycled lower a little. You can see the trend line that connects the lows back to last August. It’s currently sitting right around 1.0%.

If you looked at the title of this article, you might be wondering what rising interest rates on treasuries have to do with real estate ETFs. The connection is that when the rates on less risky treasuries rise, other income generating investments become less appealing.

Like we see when bonds become less attractive, the price has to fall by enough to make the yield attractive again. This could be what the bearish signals are suggesting about the real estate ETFs—that the yield isn’t as attractive now because treasury yields have been rising.

Regardless of the reasoning, the three most actively traded real estate ETFs all generated bearish signals on February 5. Those signals came from the Tickeron A.I. trend prediction tool. The three ETFs are the iShares US Real Estate ETF (IYR), Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ), and Real Estate Select Sector SPDR (XLRE).

The bearish signals call for a decline of at least 4% over the next month, but there is a pretty significant difference in the confidence level between the three signals. The signal for the XLRE is 76% while the confidence levels on the other two are both at 54%.

Because these are ETFs, we don’t have the traditional fundamental indicators that we can break down, but the technical indicators are the same as with an individual stock. In the case of these three funds, they all three have seen bearish signals come from the RSI Indicator, the Aroon Indicator, and the Bollinger Bands indicator. It is also worth noting that all three are in overbought territory based on the daily stochastic indicators.

Looking back at the chart of the 10-year Treasury yield, it looks like it is ready for a short cycle lower at this time, so we could see the ETFs and the treasury yield move lower together.

The complete analysis and comparison of the three funds appears below. The information from Tickeron shows how the funds compare to one another as well as other ETFs and stocks.

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