TSP Market Summary: Week of October 03, 2020

By Roy Weisert, PhD, CFP

Key Takeaways

  • September reversed August gains, breaking a five-month winning streak for stocks
  • TSP strategy moved to neutral positioning to handle expected range-bound trading
  • Market volatility likely to continue through November 3rd election date

This week marked the end of the third quarter, and saw September give back the majority of August’s gains, thereby snapping a five-month win streak. On the flip side, the S&P 500 finished the week at 3348, thereby snapping a four-week losing streak. It was also a “bookend kind” of week with the S&P 500 gaining 1.6 percent on Monday, but losing nearly 1 percent on Friday after a very volatile “POTUS coronavirus” session. From a technical perspective, September also saw a sharp Labor Day weekend selloff. After setting a new record of 3580 on Wednesday, 2 September, the S&P 500 had three straight days of losses and closed at 3381 on Tuesday, 8 September. Since then, we’ve basically been in a consolidating market with the S&P 500 in a range between 3236 and 3401. Uncertainty continues to be the theme, and will most likely continue through 3 November. For TSP TIPS, we reallocated to a neutral position on Monday, keeping us well positioned for a range bound market over the next four plus weeks.