The past week marked the end of August, the unofficial end of summer, and the S&P 500 closing out the week at 4535. On a positive note, Thursdays first-time claims for unemployment insurance report totaled 340,000, the lowest in the post-pandemic era. However, this was contradicted by Fridays nonfarm payrolls report which showed an increase of only 235,000 jobs, well below the expected 720,000. But I think the big news was the markets performance in August. For instance, the S&P 500 rose 2.9%, posting its best monthly winning streak since 2017 with 7 straight months of gains and the 9th positive month in the last 10. Along the way, the S&P 500 has not had even a 5% pullback this year and has set 54 new daily records. Twelve of those 54 record highs occurred this month, more than any other August in history. What was also unusual was that each of these 12 record setting days closed with gains of less than 1 percent, averaging just 0.36%. For TSP TIPS, all three equity funds hit new record highs this week with the C and S funds having two highs and the I with three. However, the C fund continues to top the leaderboard so we are recommending no reallocation changes this week.
The past week marked the end of August, the unofficial end of summer, and the S&P 500 closing out the week at 4535. On a positive note, Thursdays first-time claims for unemployment insurance report totaled 340,000, the lowest in the post-pandemic era. However, this was contradicted by Fridays nonfarm payrolls report which showed an increase of only 235,000 jobs, well below the expected 720,000. But I think the big news was the markets performance in August. For instance, the S&P 500 rose 2.9%, posting its best monthly winning streak since 2017 with 7 straight months of gains and the 9th positive month in the last 10. Along the way, the S&P 500 has not had even a 5% pullback this year and has set 54 new daily records. Twelve of those 54 record highs occurred this month, more than any other August in history. What was also unusual was that each of these 12 record setting days closed with gains of less than 1 percent, averaging just 0.36%. For TSP TIPS, all three equity funds hit new record highs this week with the C and S funds having two highs and the I with three. However, the C fund continues to top the leaderboard so we are recommending no reallocation changes this week.