It was a turbulent week for the S&P 500 as it closed the week at 5,344, just two points shy of breaking the three-week losing streak. However, most of the weeks bearish move occurred over the last weekend. This was set up by back-to-back daily losses of over 1% on the first two days of August. On Friday 2 August the S&P 500 closed at 5,346. On Monday morning the S&P 500 gapped down at the open to 5,151, nearly 200 points lower than Fridays close. While the S&P 500 clawed back some, at Mondays close it was down 3%. Monday also saw the 2 year Treasury Yield fall below the 10 year Yield for first time since July 2022, and the CBOE Volatility Index, or fear gauge, rising to its highest level since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. On Tuesday the S&P 500 opened at 5,206 and at Wednesdays close it stood at 5,199 for a wash. Before Thursdays open the initial jobless claims release came in at 233,000, lower than the 240,000 expected, and the markets reacted bullishly with the S&P 500 having a daily gain of over 2%. On Friday the markets seemed to be out of breath with the S&P 500 closing at 5,344. All told it was a nice bullish climb from Mondays open, but we still finished down for the fourth straight week. From a technical perspective the S&P 500s 20 day Moving Average (MA) closed below its 50 MA on Friday, reversing 20 Mays bullish move when the 20 MA crossed above the 50 MA. Next week will be driven by Tuesday and Wednesdays inflation numbers, Retail Sales on Thursday, and then UMICH Consumer Sentiment on Friday. For TSP TIPS both the C and S funds have composite scores of 50, with the International at 30. The F Bond funds Composite Score comes in at 100. As such, last weeks investment mix is still looking good.
It was a turbulent week for the S&P 500 as it closed the week at 5,344, just two points shy of breaking the three-week losing streak. However, most of the weeks bearish move occurred over the last weekend. This was set up by back-to-back daily losses of over 1% on the first two days of August. On Friday 2 August the S&P 500 closed at 5,346. On Monday morning the S&P 500 gapped down at the open to 5,151, nearly 200 points lower than Fridays close. While the S&P 500 clawed back some, at Mondays close it was down 3%. Monday also saw the 2 year Treasury Yield fall below the 10 year Yield for first time since July 2022, and the CBOE Volatility Index, or fear gauge, rising to its highest level since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. On Tuesday the S&P 500 opened at 5,206 and at Wednesdays close it stood at 5,199 for a wash. Before Thursdays open the initial jobless claims release came in at 233,000, lower than the 240,000 expected, and the markets reacted bullishly with the S&P 500 having a daily gain of over 2%. On Friday the markets seemed to be out of breath with the S&P 500 closing at 5,344. All told it was a nice bullish climb from Mondays open, but we still finished down for the fourth straight week. From a technical perspective the S&P 500s 20 day Moving Average (MA) closed below its 50 MA on Friday, reversing 20 Mays bullish move when the 20 MA crossed above the 50 MA. Next week will be driven by Tuesday and Wednesdays inflation numbers, Retail Sales on Thursday, and then UMICH Consumer Sentiment on Friday. For TSP TIPS both the C and S funds have composite scores of 50, with the International at 30. The F Bond funds Composite Score comes in at 100. As such, last weeks investment mix is still looking good.