Geopolitical concerns made for a volatile week with the S&P 500 futures dropping over 60 points at one point overnight. But by the time the markets opened the next day, much of that damage had reversed itself and the S&P 500 made a new record high of 3274 on Thursday. Friday’s jobs report missed the mark, but nothing too severe with the S&P 500 closing the week at a “calm” 3265. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also broke above the 29,000 threshold for the first time, and the next plateau will be at that 30K level which will make “breaking news”. It\'s also important to mention that Wednesday was the fifth trading day of 2020, also known as the "first five days” indicator. Dating back to the 1950’s, when the first five trading days of the year are positive, 82% of those years have also recorded positive gains. For the "first five days" of 2020, the S&P 500 was up 0.7%. As for the next couple weeks, the phase one trade deal is scheduled to be signed and corporate earnings season begins. For TSP TIPS, the performance rankings (high to low) of the three equity funds are C, S, and then I. Additionally, with the C and S funds making new record highs on Thursday, we’ve seen an increasing delta between the C and I fund year to date performance. As such, we are recommending the following allocation change as our first January transaction.
Geopolitical concerns made for a volatile week with the S&P 500 futures dropping over 60 points at one point overnight. But by the time the markets opened the next day, much of that damage had reversed itself and the S&P 500 made a new record high of 3274 on Thursday. Friday’s jobs report missed the mark, but nothing too severe with the S&P 500 closing the week at a “calm” 3265. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also broke above the 29,000 threshold for the first time, and the next plateau will be at that 30K level which will make “breaking news”. It\'s also important to mention that Wednesday was the fifth trading day of 2020, also known as the "first five days” indicator. Dating back to the 1950’s, when the first five trading days of the year are positive, 82% of those years have also recorded positive gains. For the "first five days" of 2020, the S&P 500 was up 0.7%. As for the next couple weeks, the phase one trade deal is scheduled to be signed and corporate earnings season begins. For TSP TIPS, the performance rankings (high to low) of the three equity funds are C, S, and then I. Additionally, with the C and S funds making new record highs on Thursday, we’ve seen an increasing delta between the C and I fund year to date performance. As such, we are recommending the following allocation change as our first January transaction.