The S&P 500 closed down for the week but finished higher on Friday closing at 4090. We did have up and down 1% days on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the markets seem to be consolidating as earnings season begins to wind down. Almost 70% of S&P 500 companies have reported with around 70% beating expectations. On the economic front, Fridays University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index report jumped to a thirteen-month high of 66.4 in February. On a technical basis, that consolidation is being demonstrated by this years S&P 500 weekly moves. Over the first six weeks, its taken on a stair step pattern of two up, one down, followed by another two up, one down. More importantly, each weeks low has been higher than the previous weeks low. That said, the S&P support level has stair stepped up and now stands at 3949. For next week the big news will be Tuesdays inflation numbers with hopefully continued improvement. In TSP TIPS, the S fund did have that Golden Cross this week and now all three equity funds (C/S/I) have their 20 day Moving Average (MA) above their 50 day MA which is a above their 200 day MA. As such, we are recommending no changes to our current investment mix.
The S&P 500 closed down for the week but finished higher on Friday closing at 4090. We did have up and down 1% days on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the markets seem to be consolidating as earnings season begins to wind down. Almost 70% of S&P 500 companies have reported with around 70% beating expectations. On the economic front, Fridays University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index report jumped to a thirteen-month high of 66.4 in February. On a technical basis, that consolidation is being demonstrated by this years S&P 500 weekly moves. Over the first six weeks, its taken on a stair step pattern of two up, one down, followed by another two up, one down. More importantly, each weeks low has been higher than the previous weeks low. That said, the S&P support level has stair stepped up and now stands at 3949. For next week the big news will be Tuesdays inflation numbers with hopefully continued improvement. In TSP TIPS, the S fund did have that Golden Cross this week and now all three equity funds (C/S/I) have their 20 day Moving Average (MA) above their 50 day MA which is a above their 200 day MA. As such, we are recommending no changes to our current investment mix.