A Boring Dividend Fund Owned 19.3% Energy When Hormuz Closed — Then the Index Cut It by 8 Points

The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF opened at $33.37, trading a range of $33.04 to $33.45 against a 52-week band of $26.21 to $34.24. The fund has gained 25.36% over the past twelve months on price and delivered a total return of 31.73% including dividends. Assets under management stand at $104.16 billion as of August 7 — up from roughly $85 billion in early April.

It hit a 52-week high on July 28 and sits 27.4% above its 52-week low.

The performance gap against the broad market is the widest in the fund's history. As of July 21, SCHD had delivered a 21.62% year-to-date total return assuming dividend reinvestment, against 10.36% for the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF over the same period — less than half. By the July 28 close the year-to-date total return had extended to approximately 23.88%, leading the S&P 500 by nearly 14 points. Through the first half of 2026, SCHD returned 17.50% against 11.30% for the Morningstar large-value category overall. Trailing figures as of August 7 show 25.62% against a category average of 7.82%.

The forecast here rests on identifying what actually produced that outperformance, because the answer is not the dividend screen.

SCHD entered 2026 with energy as its largest sector weighting at 19.3% following the December 2025 reconstitution — a positioning that had dragged performance during 2025 and drew explicit analyst criticism over oil price uncertainty. Then the Strait of Hormuz closed in late February, Brent ran to $138 by April, and ConocoPhillips delivered a strong second quarter driven by elevated oil prices from Middle East tensions.

A fund built to be boring turned out to be the cleanest liquid way to own an oil shock.

And the success has broken the income case. The dividend yield has compressed to 3.09% spot and 2.98% forward, down from 3.76% in December, while short-term Treasuries yield more than 4% and the two-year sits at 4.226%. Everything below develops that thesis.

The Energy Weighting Made This Fund and the Index Just Cut It

The single most consequential fact about SCHD in 2026 is a mechanical index decision taken in March, and most holders do not know it happened.

Following the December 2025 reconstitution, SCHD carried its largest sector exposure in energy at 19.3%. That weighting was widely criticised at the time. Analysis published in early December noted the heavy energy allocation had dragged year-to-date performance and might continue to do so amid oil price uncertainties spanning OPEC+ production, Russian supply and Chinese demand, while conceding the fund offered an attractive 3.76% yield at 17.5 times earnings with a PEGY ratio near 1.2 times.

Two and a half months later, U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. Brent went from roughly $62 at the start of the year to a four-year high near $120 in March and a $138 peak on April 7, averaging $117 for that month. OPEC+ output collapsed from 42.77 million barrels per day in February to 33.13 million in May.

A fund holding 19.3% energy going into that was positioned about as well as a diversified equity portfolio could be.

Then the index rebalanced. SCHD completed its annual reconstitution with changes effective March 23, 2026 — 25 companies added and 22 removed. The most pronounced shift was a substantial reduction in energy exposure, which dropped by roughly 8 percentage points from an unusually high weighting near 20% to 21%. Allocations to healthcare rose about 4 points, technology about 3 points, and financials increased.

The stated rationale was a deliberate effort to trim commodity-driven volatility.

That is the rules-based index doing exactly what it is designed to do — capping concentration and rebalancing toward valuation — and it removed 8 points of the exposure that was about to work hardest. Sector weights as of early April read: consumer defensive 19.54%, healthcare 18.84%, energy 16.57%, technology 14.62%, financial services 9.03%, industrials 8.19%, communication services 6.75%, consumer cyclical 6.42%, utilities 0.04%.

Energy at 16.57% is still substantial and still triple the S&P 500's typical weight. But the fund is now carrying materially less of the exposure that generated its edge, and that matters enormously for whether the outperformance persists.

The Yield Has Compressed to 2.98% While T-Bills Pay Over 4%

Here is the arithmetic problem that the performance numbers conceal, and for an income fund it is the central issue.

SCHD's dividend yield stood at 3.09% as of August 7, having worsened 11.08% from its twelve-month average of 3.48%. The forward yield as of August 9 was 2.98%. The three-year average yield is 3.53%. In December 2025 the fund yielded 3.76%.

Meanwhile short-term bonds are currently offering annual yields of more than 4%. The two-year Treasury sits at 4.226%, the ten-year at 4.666% and the thirty-year at 5.209%. The Federal Reserve holds its policy rate at 3.75% with officials still debating whether to raise.

So an equity income fund yields 2.98% forward against a risk-free two-year note at 4.226%. That is a negative spread of roughly 123 basis points for accepting full equity risk.

Understand how that happened. The distribution has grown — SCHD paid $1.05 per share over the past year, up 2.24% year-over-year, with a three-year average dividend growth rate of 8.19% and 44 quarterly payments since the October 2011 inception. The last declared dividend was $0.25 with an ex-date of June 24.

The yield fell because the price rose faster than the payout. A 25.36% price gain against 2.24% distribution growth mathematically compresses the yield by roughly 18%, and that is precisely what the data shows: 3.76% in December to 3.09% now.

That is the mechanical consequence of success, and it is the reason to be careful with this fund at current levels rather than encouraged by it.

The distinction that matters for allocation: SCHD's 2026 return of roughly 24% was 3 points of income and 21 points of capital appreciation. It was not an income year. It was a capital gains year that happened inside an income wrapper, and the capital gains came from an energy shock.

Anyone buying SCHD today for income is buying a 2.98% forward yield after a 25% run, when a Treasury bill pays 4% with no drawdown risk. The income case has been arbitraged away by the fund's own performance.

There is a partial counterargument. The 30-day SEC yield ran at 3.41% earlier in the year, which is higher than the trailing figure, and the 8.19% three-year distribution growth rate means the income compounds while a bond coupon does not. That is real. It also takes several years of 8% growth to close a 123 basis point gap.

What SCHD Actually Screens For and Why It Excludes REITs

The construction methodology deserves proper treatment because it explains both the outperformance and the constraints.

SCHD tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index. It is market-cap weighted, and its selection universe only includes firms with a 10-year history of paying dividends. Within that universe it applies fundamental screens on cash-flow to debt ratio, return on equity, dividend yield and dividend growth rate, narrowing a broad equity universe to 100 qualifying stocks. The fund currently holds 103 to 104 positions with the top ten accounting for 41.31% of assets.

Individual securities are capped at 4% and sectors at 25% of the portfolio. Composition is reviewed annually while the portfolio is rebalanced quarterly. REITs are excluded entirely. The expense ratio is 0.06%.

Three design features explain the 2026 result.

The ten-year dividend history requirement excludes essentially every AI-era growth company. Technology exposure per Schwab's June 30 fund data runs approximately 9%, and even that is limited to mature dividend payers like Texas Instruments and Qualcomm rather than growth-stage or AI-infrastructure names. In a year when the market's leadership narrowed to megacap technology — the Nasdaq Composite at 26,690.62 posting 123 new highs against 77 new lows on the same session — a fund structurally excluded from that trade should have underperformed badly.

It did the opposite, because the cash-flow to debt and ROE screens tilt heavily toward integrated energy and consumer staples, and energy was 2026's best-performing sector.

The 4% individual cap and 25% sector cap prevented the fund from becoming a pure energy vehicle even as energy holdings appreciated. That capped the upside and it also forced the March reduction.

The REIT exclusion turned out to be decisive. With the ten-year at 4.666% and the thirty-year at 5.209%, real estate has been among the worst-performing yield sectors. A high-dividend index that included REITs would have carried significant drag. SCHD's design avoided it entirely.

So the screen produced a portfolio that was accidentally short duration, accidentally long energy, and structurally absent from AI. In 2026 all three worked.

The Comparison With VIG Shows How Different "Dividend" Can Mean

Benchmarking against the other large dividend fund clarifies exactly what SCHD holders own.

Vanguard's Dividend Appreciation ETF tracks the S&P U.S. Dividend Growers Index, requiring ten or more consecutive years of dividend increases while deliberately excluding the top 25% of highest-yielding eligible companies — a design choice intended to avoid dividend traps. VIG holds 338 components and carries roughly 26% technology exposure, with significant positions in Broadcom, Apple and Microsoft. Its yield runs approximately 1.7% against SCHD's 3.3%, reflecting that deliberate exclusion of the highest yielders.

Two funds, both labelled dividend strategies, holding almost nothing in common.

VIG is effectively a quality-growth fund with a dividend filter — 26% technology, mega-cap tilted, 1.7% yield. SCHD is a value fund with a yield requirement — 9% technology per the issuer's June data, energy-heavy, roughly 3.3% yield. In a growth-led market VIG wins comfortably. In 2026, with an oil shock and a Fed debating hikes rather than cuts, SCHD has won by a record margin.

The Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF sits closer to SCHD in philosophy, and both have been beating the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 this year. Retail flow data shows investors buying more SCHD than VYM over recent weeks and months.

That flow preference is worth noting because it captures the behavioural pattern. AUM has risen from roughly $85 billion in April to $104.16 billion in August — an increase of approximately $19 billion. Some of that is price appreciation on the existing base, and a substantial portion is new money chasing a 24% year-to-date return in a fund marketed as conservative income.

That is the classic sequence: performance attracts assets, assets arrive at compressed yields, and the next cycle disappoints the late buyers. The fund's own literature positions it as a tool for enhancing current returns or scaling back risk exposure — and buyers arriving after a 25% run at a 2.98% forward yield are doing neither.

For a forecast, the VIG comparison sets the regime dependency. SCHD outperforms when value beats growth and energy beats technology. Both conditions have held in 2026. Neither is structural.

Consumer Staples and Healthcare at 38% Are the Genuine Defensive Core

Beneath the energy story sits the portion of the portfolio that actually justifies the fund's reputation, and it is the largest allocation.

Consumer defensive stands at 19.54% and healthcare at 18.84%, together roughly 38% of assets. Earlier figures put consumer staples at 19.4% and healthcare at 19%, with those two plus energy at 17% forming the three largest weightings.

Those sectors are where the March reconstitution added, with healthcare gaining roughly 4 percentage points.

The case for that positioning in the current environment is reasonable and it is not energy-dependent. Consumer staples pass input costs through with a lag and hold pricing power when real incomes are squeezed — and real incomes are being squeezed, with July average hourly earnings rising 0.1% against 0.3% expected and payrolls contracting by 23,000. Healthcare demand is largely inelastic to the rate cycle, and the sector has spent this earnings season as the market's least crowded large-cap allocation. Vertex Pharmaceuticals gained 7.24% premarket on a Q2 beat — a demonstration that light positioning converts fundamental surprise into price at a favourable rate.

The defensive tilt also explains a behavioural characteristic holders have observed: SCHD has held steady during stretches when the broad market has been unsettled, which is exactly what a low-beta value portfolio is supposed to do.

The valuation supports it. The fund trades at a price-earnings ratio near 17.15 against an S&P 500 at 7,766 carrying a considerably higher multiple on earnings concentrated in seven companies. Paying 17 times for consumer staples and healthcare cash flows with a 3% yield is a defensible proposition on its own terms.

The problem is that this 38% is not what generated the 14-point outperformance. Consumer staples and healthcare did not beat the S&P 500 by 14 points in 2026. Energy did, and energy is now 16.57% after being cut by 8 points.

So the forward-looking portfolio is roughly 38% genuinely defensive, 16.57% energy, 14.62% mature technology and the balance spread across financials, industrials and communication services. That is a reasonable value portfolio. It is not a portfolio positioned to repeat a 24% year.

ConocoPhillips Is the Holding That Explains 2026

Isolating the specific mechanism of outperformance makes the risk concrete.

ConocoPhillips delivered a strong second quarter driven by elevated oil prices from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and it carries heavy weighting across major energy sector funds. Individual holdings in SCHD are capped at 4%, so no single name dominates — but the energy allocation as a bloc has been the swing factor.

Trace the causal chain in full. The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since late February, carrying roughly a fifth of the world's oil and LNG before the war. Brent trades near $84 to $85, approximately 16% above pre-war levels, after peaking at $138 on April 7. September WTI reached $80.90 on Monday. OPEC+ output fell 9.64 million barrels per day from February to May. Integrated producers with U.S. and non-Gulf assets have been printing record cash flows against that price backdrop.

SCHD held 19.3% of those companies going into the year.

Now consider the reversal risk, because it is specific and dated. Iran confirmed Sunday that a transit deal with Oman on Hormuz shipping lanes is in its final stages while insisting the waterway reopens only after Washington meets six conditions. Both benchmarks fell more than 7% last week on deal optimism before reversing Monday. If a resolution arrives, roughly 9.6 million barrels per day returns to a market that OPEC+ has already authorised to produce more — 188,000 bpd approved for September on top of nearly 800,000 bpd of April-through-July increases — with U.S. shale at record highs near 13.6 million bpd.

Government forecasts have Brent falling to average $65 per barrel in 2027 on continued inventory accumulation.

Brent at $65 is a different world for SCHD's energy holdings than Brent at $85. Integrated producer earnings compress, dividend growth from that bloc slows, and the 16.57% allocation becomes a drag rather than an engine.

That is the single largest risk in this fund and it is not a dividend risk or a rate risk. It is a commodity risk sitting inside a product that most holders own precisely because they want to avoid commodity risk.

The March reconstitution reduced that exposure by 8 points, which is helpful. It left 16.57%, which is still roughly triple a market weight.

A Zacks Rank of 2 and Weighted Alpha of 24.26 Describe Momentum, Not Value

The quantitative assessments on the fund are constructive and they are measuring the wrong thing for a long-term income holder.

A Zacks Investment Research assessment published July 17 rated SCHD a Rank #2 (Buy) with a medium risk outlook. The fund carries a positive weighted alpha of 24.26 per Barchart, which is cited as a cue for a further rally. It hit a 52-week high on July 28, is up 26.44% from its 52-week low of $26.21, and technical readings show a buy rating with a one-week rating of strong buy.

Read those signals carefully. A weighted alpha of 24.26 measures trailing price momentum. A Rank #2 on an ETF is a weighted aggregate of analyst sentiment across holdings. A 52-week high plus a strong short-term technical rating is a trend-following observation.

Every one of those is a momentum signal, and momentum signals on an income fund at a compressed yield are a warning rather than a recommendation. The strongest momentum readings in SCHD's history are occurring at the lowest yield in three years and immediately after the index removed 8 points of the exposure that generated the momentum.

The framing in the bullish commentary is worth examining too. Dividend funds are described as increasingly attractive given concerns over AI-driven inflation and recent weakness in the technology sector, with dividend-paying securities serving as reliable income sources during equity volatility and acting as a hedge against economic uncertainty.

That reasoning has a problem. Apple fell 2.1% to $307.27 on Monday and Micron dropped 1.6% to $885.52, so technology softness is real. But the S&P 500 closed at a record 7,757.64 on Friday and sits near 7,766. This is not an equity market in distress requiring a defensive hedge — it is a market at all-time highs where leadership has rotated.

Buying a defensive fund at a 52-week high, at a three-year-low yield, at record index levels, on momentum signals, is the opposite of the discipline the fund is designed to enforce.

The since-inception average annual return of 13.47% is the honest long-run reference. A 25% twelve-month price gain is roughly double that pace and mean reversion applies to strategies as much as to securities.

Wednesday's CPI Cuts Both Ways for This Fund

The week's macro catalyst affects SCHD through two channels that partially offset, and the net is less favourable than for the broad market.

July U.S. CPI publishes Wednesday, August 12 at 8:30 a.m. ET, with PPI Thursday and retail sales Friday. Consensus expects the headline annual rate stepping down to 3.4% from 3.5% in June and 4.2% in May, with core at 2.5%. July payrolls contracted by 23,000, cutting September Federal Reserve hike odds to roughly 44% to 46% from about two-thirds a week earlier.

Channel one is the discount rate. A cool print compresses yields from a 4.666% ten-year and a 4.226% two-year, which makes a 2.98% forward dividend yield relatively more attractive against fixed income alternatives currently paying over 4%. That is positive for SCHD.

Channel two is the rotation. Falling rates and falling hike probability favour long-duration growth equities — precisely the AI and megacap technology complex that SCHD's ten-year dividend requirement excludes. A cool print sends capital toward the Nasdaq, not toward consumer staples.

Those two effects work against each other, and history suggests the rotation channel dominates. SCHD's 14-point outperformance in 2026 occurred during a period when the Fed was debating hikes and technology was under pressure. Reverse that and the fund's structural exclusion from growth becomes the binding constraint again.

A hot print at 3.6% or higher produces the mirror image. Hike odds return toward two-thirds, growth de-rates, and value plus energy leadership reasserts — with the added benefit that a hot print almost certainly reflects the energy pass-through that lifts SCHD's 16.57% energy allocation.

That gives an unusual conclusion for a defensive fund. SCHD's relative performance improves on bad inflation news and deteriorates on good inflation news. Income-focused investors are in a genuine dilemma as government bond yields surge amid rising U.S. inflation — the fund is a hedge against the inflation scenario and a laggard in the disinflation scenario.

Anyone holding SCHD as a diversifier against an AI-concentrated portfolio has that relationship exactly right. Anyone holding it as a general defensive allocation should understand it is a bet on the inflationary regime persisting.

The AUM Jump From $85 Billion to $104 Billion Is the Flow Warning

Asset growth is the clearest behavioural signal in the data and it points the wrong way for new buyers.

SCHD held approximately $85.03 billion in early April and $104.16 billion as of August 7 — an increase of roughly $19 billion, or 22%, across four months. Average daily volume runs in the 25 million to 28 million share range.

Decompose that growth. Price appreciation from roughly $30.72 in early April to $33.37 now is about 8.6%, which accounts for roughly $7.3 billion on the April base. The remaining $12 billion or so is net new money.

Twelve billion dollars of inflow into a dividend fund during the four months after it began materially outperforming is textbook performance chasing. Retail investors bought more SCHD than VYM over recent weeks and months.

The timing problem is that the money arrived at compressed yields. Buyers in December received 3.76%. Buyers now receive 2.98% forward. The $12 billion that came in over the summer purchased roughly 20% less income per dollar than the money that was already there, and it did so after the index had already removed 8 points of energy exposure.

There is a mechanical consideration too. A fund at $104.16 billion tracking an index of 100 names with 4% individual caps faces liquidity constraints during reconstitution that a $50 billion fund does not. When 25 companies are added and 22 removed on a single effective date, the market impact of repositioning $104 billion is material, and index-front-running by other participants transfers value away from holders.

That is a small structural drag rather than a thesis-breaker, and the 0.06% expense ratio remains among the lowest available for any active-adjacent strategy — the passive management style is a key reason for that fee level.

For the forecast, the flow data supports a cautious stance. Products that add 22% to assets on the strength of a 24% return typically deliver their weakest subsequent periods, because the new capital base is anchored to a valuation and yield that reflected the prior gain rather than the forward opportunity.

What the Distribution Growth Rate Actually Supports

Working the income arithmetic forward gives the clearest picture of what a holder can expect.

SCHD paid $1.05 per share over the past twelve months, growing 2.24% year-over-year. Its three-year average dividend growth rate is 8.19%. The most recent quarterly distribution was $0.25. The fund has made 44 payments since inception in October 2011.

The gap between 2.24% trailing growth and 8.19% three-year average growth is the number to focus on, and it is unfavourable.

A deceleration from an 8.19% multi-year pace to 2.24% in the most recent year suggests the underlying holdings' dividend growth has slowed materially. That makes sense given the composition: energy dividends are cyclical and were reset lower during the 2025 weakness that dragged the fund, while consumer staples raise payouts in the low-to-mid single digits.

Project it forward at 2.24% from a $1.05 base. Next year's distribution reaches roughly $1.07, and on today's $33.37 price that is a yield of 3.22%. At the 8.19% three-year rate it reaches $1.14, a yield of 3.42%. Either path leaves the fund yielding below the 4.226% two-year Treasury for years.

The tax dimension matters here and is often ignored. Qualified dividends receive preferential treatment while Treasury interest is taxed as ordinary income, which narrows the gap on an after-tax basis for taxable accounts. Schwab's own materials note that after-tax returns depend on the investor's situation and that the tax cost ratio represents the percentage-point reduction in returns resulting from federal income taxes.

For a top-bracket taxable investor, a 2.98% qualified dividend and a 4.226% Treasury yield are closer to parity than the headline numbers suggest. In a tax-deferred account they are not, and the Treasury wins outright on yield with no equity risk.

The genuine argument for SCHD over bonds is not current yield. It is that the income grows and the principal participates in equity returns, while a bond's coupon is fixed and its principal matures at par. Over a decade, 8% distribution growth compounds into a materially higher income stream.

That argument requires a decade. It does not support buying at a 52-week high after a 25% run.

The Regime Question: Value and Energy Leadership Is Not Structural

Assessing durability requires being explicit about what conditions produced 2026 and whether they persist.

SCHD's 14-point lead over the S&P 500 required four simultaneous conditions. Energy outperformed on a war-driven supply shock. Value outperformed growth. The Federal Reserve debated hikes rather than cuts, penalising long-duration assets. And technology showed weakness alongside concerns over AI-driven inflation.

Test each for durability.

Energy leadership depends on Hormuz staying shut. Iran and Oman are in final-stage talks on transit lanes and government forecasts have Brent at $65 in 2027. That is the least durable condition in the set.

Value over growth is cyclical and has historically persisted in multi-year regimes. This one began in 2025 and has run about eighteen months. The AI capex cycle is the counterweight — CoreWeave, Super Micro, Nebius and Cerebras all report this week, and Intel raised $15 billion Monday to fund foundry expansion. Capital is still being deployed into growth at enormous scale.

Fed hawkishness depends on the oil shock. Resolution collapses inflation expectations and permits easing, which reverses the duration penalty.

Technology weakness is already partially reversing. The Nasdaq Composite gained 342.26 points on Friday to 26,690.62, and Palantir added 35% in five sessions.

So three of the four supporting conditions unwind on a single event: a Hormuz reopening. That correlation is the fund's hidden concentration risk, and it exists despite a 100-stock portfolio with 4% caps and a 25% sector limit.

The offsetting consideration is genuine. SCHD's since-inception average annual return of 13.47% across nearly fifteen years spans multiple regimes including a decade of growth dominance, and the fund's focus on defensiveness and quality makes it suitable for conservative growth and income over long horizons. The strategy has proven it delivers repeatedly, and it did not require 2026's conditions to compound at 13.47%.

That is the correct long-term framing. It is also compatible with SCHD giving back a large portion of its relative outperformance over the next twelve months.

Levels, Scenarios and What to Watch

The forecast resolves into three paths with defined triggers.

Base case, roughly 50%: SCHD consolidates between $31.50 and $34.24 through the autumn. Wednesday's CPI prints in line at 3.4% headline and 2.5% core, confirming a Fed on hold without cutting, which keeps yields near current levels and leaves the value-versus-growth balance broadly unchanged. Energy holds around $84 Brent with Hormuz unresolved. The fund's relative outperformance narrows from 14 points toward 8 to 10 as growth participates, while the 2.98% forward yield and 38% consumer-staples-plus-healthcare core provide a floor. The 52-week high at $34.24 caps advances.

Bull case, roughly 25%: Hormuz escalation pushes Brent above $90, or CPI prints 3.6% or higher and hike odds return toward two-thirds. Both scenarios favour SCHD's composition directly — the 16.57% energy allocation appreciates and the duration penalty on growth reasserts. The fund clears $34.24 and extends toward $36, with relative outperformance against the S&P 500 widening beyond 14 points. That is the inflationary regime the fund is genuinely positioned for.

Bear case, roughly 25%: a credible Hormuz resolution collapses Brent toward the $70 to $72 pre-war baseline and then toward the $65 forecast for 2027. Energy holdings de-rate, the disinflation that follows lets the Fed ease, growth leadership reasserts, and SCHD gives back a substantial portion of a 24% year-to-date gain. First support is $31.50, then the low $29s. The $12 billion of new money that arrived over the summer at a 2.98% forward yield takes the loss.

Note the symmetric tails. That is unusual for a fund with this reputation, and it reflects the energy concentration rather than any weakness in the dividend screen.

Watch list, in order: Brent and any confirmation of direct U.S.-Iran talks. Wednesday's CPI at 8:30 a.m. ET and Thursday's PPI. The next quarterly rebalance and whether energy is trimmed further. The September ex-dividend date and whether the distribution grows above the 2.24% trailing rate. AUM against the $104.16 billion mark for signs of flow reversal. Whether the forward yield recovers above 3.20% through price weakness or distribution growth.

Discipline: this is a genuinely good fund at 0.06% with a fifteen-year record averaging 13.47% annually, and it is expensive right now on the only metric that matters for its stated purpose. A 2.98% forward yield against a 4.226% two-year, at a 52-week high, after the index removed 8 points of the sector that drove the gain, is a wait rather than a buy. Accumulate below $31.50 or when the forward yield recovers past 3.30%.

That's TradingNEWS