ASIA

In China:

• This marks the seventh straight month of expansion as output and orders saw strong growth.

In Japan:

• Shipments moderately outpaced, leaving inventories down for the fifth straight month.

• The exchanged noted that the systems failed to transition to the backup hardware.

REIT Focus:

CapitaLand announced that it aimed to triple its sustainable investment portfolio to S$6B by 2030. As part of its sustainability master plan, CapitaLand aims for 78% reduction in carbon emissions intensity and seeks to increase proportion of total electricity consumed from renewable sources by 35%.

Europe

In Europe:

• This marked its lowest level since April 2016 with downward pressure largely attributed to temporary factors, such as time-limited VAT cuts, and low energy prices.

• EU lead negotiator Barnier and UK negotiator Frost confirmed there were still big differences on fisheries and state aid.

REIT Focus:

Grainger Plc, the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, provided and interim update on its business activities through the end of August 2020.  Grainger’s financial year end on September 30th, with its full year financial results scheduled to be reported on November 19th.  Grainger’s update indicated a mostly resilient operating performance for its portfolio against the backdrop of a still challenging macro-economic backdrop. The company reported that rental growth remains strong at +3.0% year-to-date with cash rental collections remaining at 95% or more. Residential rents in arrears remains low at 1.8% of gross rent, below the historical average. Occupancy in its portfolio stood at over 95% versus 97% in August 2019. The company noted a dip in August due to some delays in its typical seasonal peak letting period cause by COVID-19, but indicated that it expects occupancy to recover in the coming months through the balance of the year. Management noted that although it has experienced some delays in construction within its development pipeline as a result of restrictions to enhance safe working practices due to COVID-19, it continues to progress the pipeline.

North America

In the U.S.:

• President Trump was taken to Walter Reed for precautionary treatment after showing some complications with the virus.

• The slight downtick is not significant enough to change the theme that the recovery is slowing down.

• The unemployment rate fell to 7.9% versus the consensus estimate of 8.2%.

REIT Focus

Mack-Cali (CLI) announced that it would suspend distribution of its common stock dividends for the third and Q4s of 2020. The decision was made in order to provide greater financial flexibility during the pandemic.

The views expressed in this update are as of the date of this blog entry. These views and any portfolio holdings discussed in the update are subject to change at any time based on market or other conditions. The adviser disclaims any duty to update these views, which may not be relied upon as investment advice. In addition, references to specific companies’ securities should not be regarded as investment recommendations or indicative of the Adelante products, strategies, or portfolios.