Real estate investment trusts have traditionally acted as a good diversifier. Investors can track the REITs market through ETFs like the Vanguard REIT ETF (NYSEArca: VNQ) or iShares Dow Jones US Real Estate Index Fund (NYSEArca: IYR). Year-to-date, VNQ is up 25.6% and IYR is 22.9% higher. [Sector Classification Change Could Boost REITs ETFs]
The healthcare sector is also seen as a mainstay since Americans will need to look after their health no matter what the economy is doing. Year-to-date, the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLV) gained 23.6% and Vanguard Health Care ETF (NYSEArca: VHT) increased 23.0%. [Healthcare ETFs for a Healthy Investment Portfolio]
Additionally, investors use dividend ETFs to track quality stocks. For instance, the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEArca: VIG) provides exposure to high-quality stocks with steady income growth, tracking stocks that have raised their dividends for at least 10 consecutive years. The SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSEArca: SDY) targets the highest-yielding stocks from the S&P 1500 Composite Index that have raised their dividends for every year over the past 25 consecutive years. Year-to-date, VIG rose 11.0% and SDY increased 11.7%. VIG has a 1.93% 12-month yield and SDY has a 2.19% 12-month yield. [A Quality Dividend ETF to Limit Portfolio Volatility]
For more information on multi-asset strategies, visit our multi-asset ETFs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.