The Federal Reserve announced a quarter-point interest-rate cut, although its meeting this week included an unusual level of internal division, with three officials dissenting. Fed Chair Jerome Powell referred to the cut as a "close call" and said that, looking forward, the central bank can "wait and see how the economy evolves."

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Many institutional investors see REITs as core real estate investments and are using them for purposes such as diversification and to gain strategic alpha. "Real world and hypothetical case studies show that combining private real estate with REITs enhances liquidity, improves portfolio flexibility, provides access to specialized operating platforms at scale -- and can deliver higher returns than private real estate alone," write Nareit's Kurt Walten, David Sullivan and John Barwick.

The Federal Reserve will start purchasing $40 billion in Treasury bills monthly starting Friday to ease short-term funding costs and rebuild reserves. "In light of the continued tightening in the money market interest rates relative to our administered rates, and other indicators of reserve market conditions, the Committee judged that reserve balances have declined to ample levels," Powell said.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has voiced concern that official job statistics could be overstating job creation by as much as 60,000 jobs per month, meaning that the economy could actually be losing jobs. "It's a complicated, unusual, and difficult situation, where the labor market is also under pressure, where job creation may actually be negative," Powell said.

Initial jobless claims climbed to 236,000 last week, climbing 44,000 from the prior period, according to the Labor Department. The tally was above the forecast of economists polled by Reuters, who had expected 220,000 claims.

The US trade deficit shrank unexpectedly in September to $52.8 billion, reaching the lowest point in more than five years, according to the Commerce Department. Exports rose by 3%, driven by a 4.9% increase in goods exports, while imports increased marginally by 0.6%.