It was a 4-day week for the markets, but the S&P 500 broke above the 4K level to close at a new record high of 4,019 on Thursday. Big numbers dominated the news with Wednesday’s announcement of a $2.2 trillion infrastructure proposal. Thursday was the last day of trading this week, and the S&P 500 gapped up at the open, maintained pace throughout the day, and then closed strong, up another 10 points in the last 20 minutes. This week also brought the end of the first quarter, and a market characterized by sector rotation with last year\'s winning trades being this year\'s losing trades. One market pundit observed that "The 25 stocks in the S&P 500 with the lowest returns last year are all positive to start the year, with a median return of +32%. On the flip side, the best performing stocks from last year are underperforming with a median return of -3% to start the year." To illustrate, Apple and Amazon were both down 7.58% and 5.00% respectively for the first quarter. The markets were closed Friday, but the March Employment Report did come out. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 916,000 while the unemployment rate fell to 6%, far exceeding analyst estimates. Additionally, the January total was revised upward by 67,000 to 233,000, while February’s revisions brought the total up another 89,000 to 468,000. Maybe this could lead to another gap open to the upside on Monday and set the tone for a bullish breakout second quarter. For TSP TIPS, all three equity funds (C/S/I) closed up over one percent on Thursday with the C fund standing at a new record high, just like the underlying S&P 500 index. As such, we’ll remain with our current allocation.
It was a 4-day week for the markets, but the S&P 500 broke above the 4K level to close at a new record high of 4,019 on Thursday. Big numbers dominated the news with Wednesday’s announcement of a $2.2 trillion infrastructure proposal. Thursday was the last day of trading this week, and the S&P 500 gapped up at the open, maintained pace throughout the day, and then closed strong, up another 10 points in the last 20 minutes. This week also brought the end of the first quarter, and a market characterized by sector rotation with last year\'s winning trades being this year\'s losing trades. One market pundit observed that "The 25 stocks in the S&P 500 with the lowest returns last year are all positive to start the year, with a median return of +32%. On the flip side, the best performing stocks from last year are underperforming with a median return of -3% to start the year." To illustrate, Apple and Amazon were both down 7.58% and 5.00% respectively for the first quarter. The markets were closed Friday, but the March Employment Report did come out. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 916,000 while the unemployment rate fell to 6%, far exceeding analyst estimates. Additionally, the January total was revised upward by 67,000 to 233,000, while February’s revisions brought the total up another 89,000 to 468,000. Maybe this could lead to another gap open to the upside on Monday and set the tone for a bullish breakout second quarter. For TSP TIPS, all three equity funds (C/S/I) closed up over one percent on Thursday with the C fund standing at a new record high, just like the underlying S&P 500 index. As such, we’ll remain with our current allocation.