The S&P 500 was down for the second week in a row, closing Friday at 5,903. On Monday the markets started out on a good note with the S&P 500 in positive territory and the NASDAQ 100 hitting an all-time high. Tuesday was a wait for the Fed day, as the S&P 500 gave back all of Mondays gains. Then Wednesday afternoon came around and the Fed did lower the rate by 0.25%, but their guidance for the upcoming year came with two rate decreases instead of the expected four. The markets quickly soured in the last two hours, with the S&P 500 down 2.95%. Thursday was mostly flat but there was some good news for the Dow, as it broke a streak of ten down days, its longest stretch of daily losses since 1974. Before Fridays open, Novembers Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index came in with an annual increase of 2.4%, which was less than expected. The markets opened lower, but over the day the markets rebounded with the S&P 500 notching a daily gain of over 1%. All told, the S&P 500 was down just shy of 2% for the week. From a technical perspective, over the last eight weeks we have had six weekly moves of greater than 1%. The greatest weekly move was the election week gain of 4.31%. However, the next two greatest weekly moves were loses, that being 2.08% five weeks ago and 1.99% this week. During these two choppy months we seem to be making bullish headway, but then we get a bearish one day Punch To The Gut like we did on Wednesday, which wipes out those gains. Next week we have Christmas, but we also have the start of the Santa Claus Rally (SCR) period, which is the last 5 trading days of the year plus the first 2 of the New Year. This year it begins at 24 Decembers open, and lasts until 3 Januarys close. Since 1969 the SCR has seen a S&P 500 average gain of 1.3%, so hopefully well see some bullish movement as we close out 2024. For TSP TIPS, with Wednesdays sell off we sent out a mid-week alert decreasing our equity allocation to 65%. Lastly, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!
The S&P 500 was down for the second week in a row, closing Friday at 5,903. On Monday the markets started out on a good note with the S&P 500 in positive territory and the NASDAQ 100 hitting an all-time high. Tuesday was a wait for the Fed day, as the S&P 500 gave back all of Mondays gains. Then Wednesday afternoon came around and the Fed did lower the rate by 0.25%, but their guidance for the upcoming year came with two rate decreases instead of the expected four. The markets quickly soured in the last two hours, with the S&P 500 down 2.95%. Thursday was mostly flat but there was some good news for the Dow, as it broke a streak of ten down days, its longest stretch of daily losses since 1974. Before Fridays open, Novembers Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index came in with an annual increase of 2.4%, which was less than expected. The markets opened lower, but over the day the markets rebounded with the S&P 500 notching a daily gain of over 1%. All told, the S&P 500 was down just shy of 2% for the week. From a technical perspective, over the last eight weeks we have had six weekly moves of greater than 1%. The greatest weekly move was the election week gain of 4.31%. However, the next two greatest weekly moves were loses, that being 2.08% five weeks ago and 1.99% this week. During these two choppy months we seem to be making bullish headway, but then we get a bearish one day Punch To The Gut like we did on Wednesday, which wipes out those gains. Next week we have Christmas, but we also have the start of the Santa Claus Rally (SCR) period, which is the last 5 trading days of the year plus the first 2 of the New Year. This year it begins at 24 Decembers open, and lasts until 3 Januarys close. Since 1969 the SCR has seen a S&P 500 average gain of 1.3%, so hopefully well see some bullish movement as we close out 2024. For TSP TIPS, with Wednesdays sell off we sent out a mid-week alert decreasing our equity allocation to 65%. Lastly, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!