Looking at U.S. ETFs, investors clearly had income on their minds as the Vanguard REIT ETF (NYSEArca: VNQ) and the iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF (NYSEArca: IYR) make their first appearances on the most searched list in a while.
Declining Treasury yields have bolstered REIT ETFs this year with VNQ and IYR up an average of 17%. The two funds have pulled in more than $1 billion combined since the start of the second quarter. [REIT ETF Ready to Rocket Higher]
Speaking of income, the two most popular explicit dividend ETFs this week were the WisdomTree SmallCap Dividend Fund (NYSEArca: DES) and the WisdomTree LargeCap Dividend Fund (NYSEArca: DLN), both of which joined the all-time high club on Friday.
Although the Russell 2000 has returned to positive territory on a year-to-date basis, DES is up 3.5%, more than double the returns offered by the small-cap benchmark. That is confirmation that small-cap dividend payers have been buffered to some degree from recent weakness in smaller stocks. [Dividend ETFs With Safe Dividends]
Vanguard REIT ETF
