The Federal Reserve raised interest rates today and raised expectations for a fourth rate hike in December. They unanimously agreed to raise the federal funds rate a quarter percentage point, to a range of 2% to 2.25%. The rate helps drive interest rates for mortgages, consumer loans, and credit cards. In 2019, the Fed expects at least three more rate hikes.

The rising trend in interest rates impacts many things beyond consumer credit. Ultimately, when the cost of borrowing increases it can impact real estate, homebuilders, and home construction.

The price trend of homebuilders and home construction stocks is down. The ETF of home builders and home construction stocks is down about -20% from their highs in January.

The price trends in Homebuilders stock ETF (XHB) and Home Construction ETF (ITB) show they really haven’t recovered from the fall that started in 2007.

Below we add the 10-year treasury rate. Rising interest rates may be having some impact on real estate home builders and construction.

Rising interest rates are supposed to boost the profit margins of financials like banks and insurance. However, so far we observe the bank stocks and insurance stocks ETFs are trending mostly sideways since interest rates moved higher.

Another real estate sector is represented by the Real Estate sector ETF (XLRE), which seeks to provide precise exposure to companies from real estate management and development and REITs, excluding mortgage REITs. I shared some observations about the overall real esate sector earlier this year in Interest Rate Trend and Rate Sensitive Sector Stocks. The impact of rising rates has continued.

A clearer observation is seen in the chart of homebuilders stocks along with the trend in the 15-year and 30-year mortgage rate.

Clearly, there seems to be some correlation between rising rates and falling real estate sector and industry groups like homebuilders and home construction stocks.

This is why I shift between markets and sectors based on their price trends instead of just allocating capital to them regardless of their directional trend. It’s also why we manage our risk in absolute terms with our intention of avoiding large losses created by significant down-trending price trends. I rotate between world markets rather than allocate to them.

Mike Shell is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Shell Capital Management, LLC, and the portfolio manager of ASYMMETRY® Global Tactical.

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The observations shared in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal an investor must be willing to bear. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.