In the first full trading week of 2026, the S&P 500 had a nice gain as it closed Friday at a new record high of 6,966. Coming off the capture of Venezuelan leader Maduro over the weekend, on Monday the S&P 500 gapped up at the open as investors pushed aside fears of bigger geopolitical conflict, which pushed the S&P 500 back above the 6,900 level. On Tuesday that historic climb continued as the S&P 500 set a new record closing high, the first since Christmas Eve. The S&P 500 then took a well-deserved breather as it closed slightly down on Wednesday, and was flat on Thursday. Before Fridays open the December jobs report showed non-farm payrolls increasing by 50,000, less than the 73,000 estimate, and the unemployment rate inching down to 4.4%. As such, traders took that as a sign that improvement in the economy would happen soon, and the S&P 500 marched to second new record close for the week and new year. From a technical perspective, the Santa Clause Rally fell seven points short of a win. However, it did score a win with the First Five trading days of the new year, which says that if those days produce a positive return, it is a good omen for a bullish year. While contradictory, it sure feels bullish with the S&P 500 hitting new records and making higher highs and higher lows on the weekly Heikin-Ashi chart. For next week we get a plethora of economic news ranging from inflation to GDP numbers, and hopefully some good news will drive the S&P 500 above 7,000 for the first time. For TSP TIPS it was a nice bullish week as the I fund made record highs on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. And the C and S funds also joined in on the fun with new record highs on Tuesday and Friday. Also, all three funds have Composite Scores of 100, and the I fund leads the Performance Ranking leaderboard while the C and S funds are deadlocked in second. As such, we recommend no changes to our Aggressive investment mix, but a slight 10% allocation increase in the I fund in the Moderate and Conservative models.
In the first full trading week of 2026, the S&P 500 had a nice gain as it closed Friday at a new record high of 6,966. Coming off the capture of Venezuelan leader Maduro over the weekend, on Monday the S&P 500 gapped up at the open as investors pushed aside fears of bigger geopolitical conflict, which pushed the S&P 500 back above the 6,900 level. On Tuesday that historic climb continued as the S&P 500 set a new record closing high, the first since Christmas Eve. The S&P 500 then took a well-deserved breather as it closed slightly down on Wednesday, and was flat on Thursday. Before Fridays open the December jobs report showed non-farm payrolls increasing by 50,000, less than the 73,000 estimate, and the unemployment rate inching down to 4.4%. As such, traders took that as a sign that improvement in the economy would happen soon, and the S&P 500 marched to second new record close for the week and new year. From a technical perspective, the Santa Clause Rally fell seven points short of a win. However, it did score a win with the First Five trading days of the new year, which says that if those days produce a positive return, it is a good omen for a bullish year. While contradictory, it sure feels bullish with the S&P 500 hitting new records and making higher highs and higher lows on the weekly Heikin-Ashi chart. For next week we get a plethora of economic news ranging from inflation to GDP numbers, and hopefully some good news will drive the S&P 500 above 7,000 for the first time. For TSP TIPS it was a nice bullish week as the I fund made record highs on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. And the C and S funds also joined in on the fun with new record highs on Tuesday and Friday. Also, all three funds have Composite Scores of 100, and the I fund leads the Performance Ranking leaderboard while the C and S funds are deadlocked in second. As such, we recommend no changes to our Aggressive investment mix, but a slight 10% allocation increase in the I fund in the Moderate and Conservative models.