What Really Happened Yesterday
Dividend Growth Investing, REITs, Value
Seeking Alpha Analyst Since 2009
Brad Thomas is the CEO of Wide Moat Research ("WMR"), a subscription-based publisher of financial information, serving over 100,000 investors around the world. WMR has a team of experienced multi-disciplined analysts covering all dividend categories, including REITs, MLPs, BDCs, and traditional C-Corps.
The WMR brands include: (1) iREIT on Alpha (Seeking Alpha), and (2) The Dividend Kings (Seeking Alpha), and (3) Wide Moat Research. He is also the editor of The Forbes Real Estate Investor.
Thomas has also been featured in Barron's, Forbes Magazine, Kiplinger’s, US News & World Report, Money, NPR, Institutional Investor, GlobeStreet, CNN, Newsmax, and Fox.
He is the #1 contributing analyst on Seeking Alpha in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 (based on page views) and has over 108,000 followers (on Seeking Alpha). Thomas is also the author of The Intelligent REIT Investor Guide (Wiley) and is writing a new book, REITs For Dummies.
Thomas received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business/Economics from Presbyterian College and he is married with 5 wonderful kids. He has over 30 years of real estate investing experience and is one of the most prolific writers on Seeking Alpha. To learn more about Brad visit HERE.Summary
- Around 1:45 yesterday, CNN reported that the U.S. had its first official case of Covid 19’s Omicron variant. Just like that, people were panicking over shutdown possibilities.
- Yet before you panic too, stop and really think about it.
- We can’t control Mr. Market, but we can control our reactions to his manic moves.
Quote of the Day:
“Mr. Market can be an old (or maybe a young fool) who, from time to time, becomes hysterical. Sometimes, in his madness, he sees ghosts. At others, he imagines the good fairy touching him with her long golden fingers.” – Barton Biggs
(Source: Canva)
For a while there yesterday, the major indices looked like they would take back a good chunk of Tuesday’s losses. Maybe they’d even advance beyond that dip altogether, making it a mere blip in a continuing bull market!
But that just wasn’t meant to be.
Around 1:45, CNN reported that the U.S. had its first official case of Covid 19’s Omicron variant. Just like that, people were panicking over shutdown possibilities.
Yet before you panic too, stop and really think about it.
Like how Mr. Market knew full well on Monday – when stocks climbed nicely after Friday’s significant selloff – and again on Wednesday morning that Omicron would hit the U.S. soon enough.
He’s not stupid. Just reactionary. Hence the December 1 chart below of the S&P 500 (dark blue), Dow (bright blue), and Nasdaq (purple):
(Source: Yahoo Finance)
As such, Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell’s remarks to the Senate Banking Committee didn’t help. As Great Hill Capital Chairman Thomas Hayes told Yahoo Finance Live, he threw a major:
“… wrench into the mix at the hearing, saying that maybe we’ll speed up taper[ing] by a few months. That’s no small potatoes for sure, because the market had anticipated over six or seven months that we would get another $660 billion of liquidity.”
At the same time, tapering was going to happen in the short-ish term regardless. So, again, the S&P 500 falling 1.18%, or 53.96 points…
The Dow losing 1.34%, or 461.68 points…
And the Nasdaq giving up 1.83%, or 283.64 points?
It’s mostly emotion-based poor planning. That’s why we at iREIT on Alpha don’t believe in basing our investment decisions on short-term assurances alone.
We can’t control Mr. Market, but we can control our reactions to his manic moves.
The World According to REITs
Elsewhere in the news, Disney (DIS) will replace current CEO Bob Iger with Susan Arnold to ring in the new year. That’s one more big-company big-name switchup after the likes of Jeff Bezos at Amazon (AMZN) and Jack Dorsey at Twitter (TWTR).
And a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey showed that 27% of Americans applied for a credit card in the past 12 months. That’s up significantly from what they recorded in October 2020, indicating that consumers are either:
- More willing to take on debt again
- More desperate to take on debt again.
Moving on to real estate investment trusts (REITs) now…
- STAG Industrial (STAG) completed the country’s largest rooftop community solar project at its Hamstead, Maryland, facility. The 9.2 megawatt system joins two smaller projects in the state to generate more than 15 million kilowatt hours of annual electricity.
- The GEO Group (GEO) saw its board of directors unanimously approve a plan to transition from a REIT to a C-corp. As such, it will stop paying quarterly dividends next year.
- Condor Hospitality Trust (CDOR) approved a liquidation proposal to sell all or almost all its assets before completely dissolving the company.
Those last two are pretty disruptive (though not unexpected) pieces of information. But I do share three much more positive reports on today’s Intelligent REIT Daily.
You just never know when they’re going to come, which is why I urge you so often to sign up for yourself. Especially when it’s completely free.
And, as usual, everything I couldn’t – and could – fit in these two free resources is published up on iREIT on Alpha in today’s Daily REITBeat post. You can join right here!
(Source: The Daily REITBeat)
Inflation Is a Monster REITs Can Help You Beat
One of my readers recently wanted to know if I was worried about inflation – an intensely legitimate question.
The simple answer is that I definitely do have it on my mind. Fortunately though, I also have REITs.
As I wrote months ago, real estate investment trusts offer “natural protection against inflation” since rental contracts tend to include such considerations. In fact:
“… many leases are tied to inflation. This supports REIT dividend growth and provides a reliable stream of income regardless, helping to support the following fact…
“That, in all but two of the last 20 years, REIT dividend increases have outpaced inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.”
Not bad, right?
Not bad at all! Just as long as you know which ones are worth your money at any given time – both from a valuation and quality perspective.
That’s why iREIT on Alpha gives members ahead-of-the-curve advice on what’s what in REIT-dom through:
- Insightful articles
- Profitable portfolios
- Proprietary tools…
This is your chance to try us out – without any strings attached. Activate your two-week free trial period now and see if iREIT is right for you.
I can’t wait to show you everything you’ll have at your disposal when you do!
Analyst's Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of STAG either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives.
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