Chart of the Week Archive

REITs Hold Up Better Than Stocks

While stocks have faded back to January levels, real estate investment trusts or REITs are still up for the year.

The Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ) is up over 5% in 2011 while the performance of the S&P 500 has been nearly flat.

REITs have enjoyed a steady recovery since the peak of the financial crisis and have outperformed stocks on a total return basis.

Financials Lag a Weak Market

What's doing worse than the overall stock market?  Try financials.

Since the beginning of 2011, the S&P 500 is flat having given up the year's gains in the recent 6-week downturn.