Stocks exposed to the US housing market plummeted Wednesday as investors assessed grim outlooks from companies like home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos Inc., and weighed the lack of a housing policy update during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech.
The S&P composite homebuilder index shed as much as 5.2%, the most since last April’s tariff-related market meltdown. The declines were led by Green Brick Partners Inc., Lennar Corp., Champion Homes Inc., Dream Finders Homes Inc., Installed Building Products Inc., DR Horton Inc. and TopBuild Corp. Mortgage-exposed companies like Rocket Cos Inc. fell as well.
Lowe’s forecast full-year sales that fell short of expectations, in a sign the housing market will remain lackluster in the near term, following close on the heels of cautionary comments from Home Depot Inc. that macroeconomic challenges remain. Lowe’s shares tumbled as much as 5.4% Wednesday.
Investors had also been hoping that Trump would push efforts to boost the housing market in his State of the Union address. But he only briefly mentioned potentially banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes, and largely limited discussion of housing affordability, Citi analyst Anthony Pettinari wrote in a note to clients.
“There had been optimism the administration would reveal new policies to support the market but it ended up just being a reflection on the drop in rates and a reiteration of the proposal to ban institutional home ownership,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Drew Reading said.
Trump also appeared to abdicate the issue of housing affordability to the Federal Reserve.
“Lower interest rates will solve the Biden-created housing problem,” he said, “while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives.”
Earlier this week, Home Depot’s Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said that “the homeowner is one of the healthiest customer cohorts out there, but they tell us that uncertainty is growing, that there’s concern around housing affordability, around job losses.”
Meanwhile, Lowe’s Chief Executive Officer Marvin Ellison on Wednesday said that “consumer confidence remains subdued given inflationary pressures and overall economic uncertainty.” He also flagged high mortgage rates, leading to a “persistent lock-in effect,” and slow new home building.
Shares of other building related companies also dropped. The S&P Composite 1500 Building Products Index fell as much as 2.5%. Hayward Holdings Inc., UFP Industries Inc. and Builders FirstSource Inc. were the biggest percentage decliners in the group.
Written by: Felice Maranz and Arvelisse Bonilla Ramos — With assistance from Katy O’Donnell @Bloomberg
The post “Housing Stocks Hit Hard by Gloomy Outlooks, Trump’s Snub” first appeared on Bloomberg