It was a choppy yet productive week for the S&P 500 as it posted back-to-back weekly gains and also three of the last four weeks up as it closed Friday at 5,686. The previous week closed out with four straight days of S&P 500 gains, but as the markets opened on Monday the S&P 500 traded more than 1% in the red at session lows before taking a leg up in afternoon trading, making it five up days in a row. Tuesday was dominated by tariff news with coming along great and close to announcing a trade deal proclamations and the S&P 500 marched higher, making it six in a row. Before Wednesdays open the first quarter gross domestic product reported a decline of 0.3%, a reversal from a 2.4% increase in the fourth quarter. As such the S&P 500 gaped down at the open with a loss of over 2%. However, it battled back for another winning session, making it seven in a row. Wednesday also marked the end of April with the S&P 500 down for three straight months. After Wednesdays close both Meta and Microsoft reported good earnings, and that good news carried into Thursday with both up 4% and 8% respectively. And the S&P 500 made it eight in a row. Overnight China said that it is evaluating the possibility of starting trade negotiations with the U.S, and then before Fridays open the payrolls report exceeded expectations while the 4.2% unemployment rate was in line with expectations. This triggered a renewed sense of bullishness with the S&P 500 notching a gain of over 1% and marking nine straight up days, the most since November 2004. From a technical perspective, those nine straight up days has resulted in improving Performance Rankings (PR) across the board, and as a funds PR crosses into positive territory, we will see a rotation from cash into those funds. For next week the big news will be the Fed intertest rate decision on Wednesday. For TSP TIPS that PR rotation has resulted in positive numbers for all three individual equity funds. With the I fund hitting a new record high on Friday, it sits at the top of the PR leaderboard, followed by C, and rounded out by the S fund. As such we recommend the following new investment mixes as we move to 100% in equities.
It was a choppy yet productive week for the S&P 500 as it posted back-to-back weekly gains and also three of the last four weeks up as it closed Friday at 5,686. The previous week closed out with four straight days of S&P 500 gains, but as the markets opened on Monday the S&P 500 traded more than 1% in the red at session lows before taking a leg up in afternoon trading, making it five up days in a row. Tuesday was dominated by tariff news with coming along great and close to announcing a trade deal proclamations and the S&P 500 marched higher, making it six in a row. Before Wednesdays open the first quarter gross domestic product reported a decline of 0.3%, a reversal from a 2.4% increase in the fourth quarter. As such the S&P 500 gaped down at the open with a loss of over 2%. However, it battled back for another winning session, making it seven in a row. Wednesday also marked the end of April with the S&P 500 down for three straight months. After Wednesdays close both Meta and Microsoft reported good earnings, and that good news carried into Thursday with both up 4% and 8% respectively. And the S&P 500 made it eight in a row. Overnight China said that it is evaluating the possibility of starting trade negotiations with the U.S, and then before Fridays open the payrolls report exceeded expectations while the 4.2% unemployment rate was in line with expectations. This triggered a renewed sense of bullishness with the S&P 500 notching a gain of over 1% and marking nine straight up days, the most since November 2004. From a technical perspective, those nine straight up days has resulted in improving Performance Rankings (PR) across the board, and as a funds PR crosses into positive territory, we will see a rotation from cash into those funds. For next week the big news will be the Fed intertest rate decision on Wednesday. For TSP TIPS that PR rotation has resulted in positive numbers for all three individual equity funds. With the I fund hitting a new record high on Friday, it sits at the top of the PR leaderboard, followed by C, and rounded out by the S fund. As such we recommend the following new investment mixes as we move to 100% in equities.