In a holiday-shortened week, the S&P 500 bounced back from last weeks loss and finished up closing Friday at 6,481. After the long weekend, the S&P 500 gapped down at Tuesdays open and was down 100 points by noon, but then clawed back about half of that before the closing bell. On Wednesday the markets rebounded thanks to solid gains in the tech sector. Alphabet (GOOG) soared over 9% after the Google parent avoided a breakup in an antitrust case that had weighed on their stocks performance. On Thursday the ADP private payrolls report showed an increase of 54,000 jobs in August, less than the expected 75,000 jobs, and also less than the revised 106,000 in July. However, traders shook off that report in the afternoon and pushed stocks solidly into the green with the S&P 500 closing at a new record high above 6,500 for the first time. Before Fridays open the August nonfarm payrolls report increased by just 22,000, less than the expected 75,000, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%. The S&P 500 hit a new intraday high at the open, but unlike Thursday afternoon, the markets fell off with the S&P 500 closing below 6,500. From a technical perspective, the S&P 500 scored that new all-time high on Thursday, but what has also been encouraging is that this bullish move seems to be broadening with the Russell 2000 Small Cap index now up five weeks in a row. For next week we get the inflation numbers on Wednesday and Thursday, which will be the last inflation reports before the 17 September Fed meeting and rate decision. For TSP TIPS it was an All-Time High week with the C fund hitting that on Thursday, followed by the S fund on Friday. Both of them are maxed out with Composite Scores of 100, but the S fund remains at the top of the Performance Ranking leaderboard, extending its lead over the C and I funds. As such we recommend no changes to our current investment mixes.
In a holiday-shortened week, the S&P 500 bounced back from last weeks loss and finished up closing Friday at 6,481. After the long weekend, the S&P 500 gapped down at Tuesdays open and was down 100 points by noon, but then clawed back about half of that before the closing bell. On Wednesday the markets rebounded thanks to solid gains in the tech sector. Alphabet (GOOG) soared over 9% after the Google parent avoided a breakup in an antitrust case that had weighed on their stocks performance. On Thursday the ADP private payrolls report showed an increase of 54,000 jobs in August, less than the expected 75,000 jobs, and also less than the revised 106,000 in July. However, traders shook off that report in the afternoon and pushed stocks solidly into the green with the S&P 500 closing at a new record high above 6,500 for the first time. Before Fridays open the August nonfarm payrolls report increased by just 22,000, less than the expected 75,000, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%. The S&P 500 hit a new intraday high at the open, but unlike Thursday afternoon, the markets fell off with the S&P 500 closing below 6,500. From a technical perspective, the S&P 500 scored that new all-time high on Thursday, but what has also been encouraging is that this bullish move seems to be broadening with the Russell 2000 Small Cap index now up five weeks in a row. For next week we get the inflation numbers on Wednesday and Thursday, which will be the last inflation reports before the 17 September Fed meeting and rate decision. For TSP TIPS it was an All-Time High week with the C fund hitting that on Thursday, followed by the S fund on Friday. Both of them are maxed out with Composite Scores of 100, but the S fund remains at the top of the Performance Ranking leaderboard, extending its lead over the C and I funds. As such we recommend no changes to our current investment mixes.