The S&P 500 closed the week at 4145, but the big news was Fridays employment report. 528,000 new jobs were created, more than doubling the estimate. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, with wage growth rising 0.5% for the month and 5.2% higher for the year. With such strong numbers, the Fed may have to act more aggressively in raising rates to control inflation, which will be reported next week. In fact, the Fed will have another set of August employment/inflation reports prior to its next meeting on 20/21 September. Lastly, 2nd quarter earnings season is coming to a close with 87% of S&P 500 companies reporting results. Of that amount, 75% have beat earnings expectations. From a technical perspective, the S&P 500 has had three weeks in a row where Fridays close was higher than Mondays open. Additionally, its Performance Ranking (PR) has now turned positive. What would be nice to see next is for the S&P 500 to break above the 2 June 4177 resistance level. For TSP TIPS, the C fund has tracked with its S&P 500 benchmark index and the S fund also has three weeks of Friday closes higher than Monday opens and a positive PR. As such, no reallocations are recommended this week.
The S&P 500 closed the week at 4145, but the big news was Fridays employment report. 528,000 new jobs were created, more than doubling the estimate. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, with wage growth rising 0.5% for the month and 5.2% higher for the year. With such strong numbers, the Fed may have to act more aggressively in raising rates to control inflation, which will be reported next week. In fact, the Fed will have another set of August employment/inflation reports prior to its next meeting on 20/21 September. Lastly, 2nd quarter earnings season is coming to a close with 87% of S&P 500 companies reporting results. Of that amount, 75% have beat earnings expectations. From a technical perspective, the S&P 500 has had three weeks in a row where Fridays close was higher than Mondays open. Additionally, its Performance Ranking (PR) has now turned positive. What would be nice to see next is for the S&P 500 to break above the 2 June 4177 resistance level. For TSP TIPS, the C fund has tracked with its S&P 500 benchmark index and the S fund also has three weeks of Friday closes higher than Monday opens and a positive PR. As such, no reallocations are recommended this week.