Rising rates also mean real estate investment trust payments are higher, which eats away at potential dividend payouts to investors. Nevertheless, the broad Vanguard REIT ETF (NYSEArca: VNQ) was 1.2% higher Wednesday. [Residential REITs ETF & The Rise of Renters]
Many investors feared that fixed-income bond funds, especially those with longer durations, would also see prices fall as rates rise. However, long-term Treasury bond ETFs were slightly up Wednesday, with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSEArca: TLT) rising 0.4%. [Are You Underestimating Treasury Bond ETFs?]
A Fed rate hike would diminish the supply of money floating around the economy and strengthen the U.S. dollar. However, the PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSEArca: UUP), which tracks the price movement of the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, dipped 0.1% after the news.
Additionally, the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) increased 1.0% Wedneday. Gold assets would typically weaken on rate hikes since investors would shift away from non-yield-generating assets like gold, especially on a stronger dollar and lower inflation outlook. [Maybe Some Good Technical News for Gold ETFs]
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Max Chen contributed to this article.