(New York)

How does a REIT with great long-term business fundamentals and eye-popping yields sound? If that sounds good, take a look at Ventas. The REIT owns 1,200 properties, many focused on senior and assisted-living facilities. The long-term business looks very healthy as demographics—including retiring Baby Boomers—are a major growth opportunity for the REIT. The dividend yield is a strong 5.7%, and it appears safe, according to Morningstar.

FINSUM: Definitely seems like a REIT worth some more investigation. We like the combination of good yield and strong long-term fundamentals.

(New York)

The markets took another dive yesterday, with the Dow losing well over a 1%, the S&P 500 down almost 1.5% and the Nasdaq down over 2%. That loss jolted investors out of the sense that things might be back to normal after a strong recovery in recent days. This all begs the question of whether it is really time to start worrying about a recession? A new study from Bank of America says no. The bank did analysis of economic performance going back to the sixties and have found that compared to previous pre-recession cycles, the US is actually moving away from recession now.

FINSUM: Relying on historical data is probably not going to be very fruitful right now as the pretext (artificially low rates etc.) is totally different for this economic cycle.

(Beijing)

This story is not getting much attention in the US, but we thought it too big to ignore. S&P Global, one of the world’s leading credit raters, just announced that a “debt iceberg with titanic credit risks”. S&P says that China has seen a massive rise in borrowing by its local governments, much of it hidden from view, and the the excessive borrowing poses grave risks. The ratings agency says there is between $4.3 tn to $5.8 tn of off-balance sheet debt held by local governments following “rampant” borrowing. The debt is hidden is what are called “Local government financing vehicles” (LGFVs), which were entities used to raise debt before local governments were allowed to issue bonds in capital markets.

FINSUM: This is a pretty scary story that only the FT seems to be covering. It makes one wonder if LGFVs will be the acronym at the center of the next crisis.

(New York)

One of the challenges that all advisors are dealing with at the moment is how to handle rising rates and their affect on portfolios. There are good options out there for handling the challenge, like rate hedge ETFs, but within the efforts to defend against losses, there have a been a few hard-to-predict moves. One big surprise has been the performance of utilities stocks. Utilities generally lose when rates rise as their yields look relatively less attractive. However, utilities are outperforming the market, with a flat performance this month through Monday, and a 6% gain in the last three months. Explaining the gains, one fund manager says “'In a market like this, in a dramatic sell-off, the rotational effects will be higher than the interest rate effect”.

FINSUM: We sort of understand the safe haven status, but how does a rate-sensitive sector become a safe haven from rate-driven losses? Nonetheless, utilities stocks are doing well.

(Washington)

Investors need to be aware that big political news may be released any minute. That may not sound like much of a statement these days, but Bloomberg is reporting that Robert Mueller may release the findings from his investigations very soon. Bloomberg says Mueller is under immense pressure to release the findings of his probe or cease his investigation. He is especially under pressure to release whether he has found evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia and whether the president did anything to obstruct justice.

FINSUM: It seems likely that these findings won’t be released until after the midterms, but you never know if a politically-motivated early release right before the election might occur.