REITs fall 4.4% in October

U.S. REITs declined by 4.4 percent in October, according to the FTSE Nareit Equity REITs Index. Year-to-date, equity REITs are down 6.4 percent, significantly lagging behind the broader equity markets. The S&P 500 Index is up 10.7 percent in the first 10 months of the year.

The best performance in October was recorded by the infrastructure sector, which primarily includes REITs focused on wireless-communications towers. Infrastructure REITs rose 6.1 percent in October but are down 20 percent year-to-date. The sector has been buoyed by interest in digital-related real estate. That trend also supported the data center sector, which had the second-best performance in October, rising 1.3 percent in the month and logging a 17.9 percent return year-to-date.

October saw a number of big REIT mergers in the works. Realty Income Corp. has agreed to acquire Spirit Realty Trust