After December’s sharp drop, the markets had a nice rebound in January with the S&P 500 closing the week at 2706. Recent gains can be attributed to gains in investor confidence and a strong jobs report on Friday, which marked 100 straight months of job growth. From a technical perspective, we remain optimistic, but are also cautious as it seems reminiscent of the market’s performance last year at this time. As a reminder, the S&P 500 closed at 2823 on 31 January 2018, only to drop to 2581 on 8 February 2018. Right now we sit in that “middle ground” with the S&P 500 above its 50 day Moving Average (MA), but below its 200 day MA. We also have the S&P 500 only 12 points below the top of its Bollinger Band, which usually signifies an overbought condition and a time for the markets to consolidate. For TSP TIPS, we’ll maintain that “middle ground” allocation until the markets can confirm their bullishness by crossing above their 200 day MA, which currently stands at 2741.
After December’s sharp drop, the markets had a nice rebound in January with the S&P 500 closing the week at 2706. Recent gains can be attributed to gains in investor confidence and a strong jobs report on Friday, which marked 100 straight months of job growth. From a technical perspective, we remain optimistic, but are also cautious as it seems reminiscent of the market’s performance last year at this time. As a reminder, the S&P 500 closed at 2823 on 31 January 2018, only to drop to 2581 on 8 February 2018. Right now we sit in that “middle ground” with the S&P 500 above its 50 day Moving Average (MA), but below its 200 day MA. We also have the S&P 500 only 12 points below the top of its Bollinger Band, which usually signifies an overbought condition and a time for the markets to consolidate. For TSP TIPS, we’ll maintain that “middle ground” allocation until the markets can confirm their bullishness by crossing above their 200 day MA, which currently stands at 2741.