Last week’s no-hike Fed decision raises questions about the outlook for the US economy, but another delay in tightening monetary policy revived demand for interest-rate sensitive assets. US real estate investment trusts (REITs) gained more than 3% for the week through Sep. 18, based on the total return for the Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ). That’s the best weekly performance by far for the week just passed among our standard set of proxies for monitoring an the major asset classes.

The Fed’s preference for leaving its policy rate at the current zero-to-0.25% target lifted other rate-sensitive assets. Notably, utility stocks fared well last week. The 2.6% total return for the Utilities SPDR ETF (XLU) was far and away the biggest gain among the major US equity sectors last week.

By contrast, the news that Yellen and company left rates unchanged weighed on the financial sector—banks in particular. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) was the second-worst performer last week for sector ETFs, courtesy of its 1.5% retreat. The bearish reaction is no doubt linked to the fact that the Fed decision ensures that there’s still no relief in sight for the big squeeze on net-interest margins—the difference between income generated by banks and financial institutions vs. the payouts to lenders. The net-interest margin for US banks has fallen like a stone in recent years, for an obvious reason—rates are at or near record lows generally. With no immediate prospect for a change on this front, the crowd dumped shares of financial stocks in the wake of the Fed’s dovish announcement.

Turning to the one-year performance profile, most of the ETF proxies for the major asset classes remain under water. With the exception of REITs (+7.8%) and US investment grade bonds overall (+3.8%), red ink prevails in the trailing one-year total-return column. Broadly defined commodities remain dead last for this leg of the horse race. The iPath Bloomberg Commodity ETN (DJP) is off a hefty 30% for the one-year (252 trading days) period through last Friday.