TSP Market Summary: Week of August 24, 2019

By Roy Weisert, PhD, CFP

Key Takeaways

  • Trade war escalation wiped out six days of stock market gains in a single Friday session
  • F fund reached new record high as investors flocked to bonds for safety amid uncertainty
  • Fed Chair's unclear rate cut signals caused yield curve inversion, adding market stress

The trade war escalated Friday with the U.S. and China implementing new tariffs, and culminated with a Trump tweet "ordering" American companies to find an alternative to China operations. As a result, the markets gave up six days of gains and fell back to where it was last Thursday, closing at 2847 again. In other news Friday, Fed Chairman Powell released a statement from the annual central banking symposium in Jackson Hole that didn\'t give a clear suggestion of a rate cut in September which caused another brief inversion of the yield curve. For TSP TIPS, the strong demand for the safety of bonds resulted in the F fund hitting a new record high and leading all funds in performance ranking. Taking advantage of that bond demand while taking a more defensive equity position, we recommend the following reallocation.

Recommended Allocation (Moderate Profile)

This is our historical recommendation from this date. For current recommendations, subscribe.

G FundF FundC FundS FundI Fund
15% 60% 25% 0% 0%