The S&P 500 broke a string of two consecutive up weeks, down -1.99% this week and closing Friday at 7,353. Monday was rotation day as investors rotated out of the Magnificent Seven names, with Amazon dropping nearly -5%, Meta Platforms falling -2%, and Alphabet shares slipping -5%, notching their worst daily performance in over a year. On Tuesday fears of higher interest rates from the Fed and concerns over massive spending on AI resulted in a second day of declines, with the S&P500 losing -1.44% and the NASDAQ 100 losing more than double that at -3.24%. On Wednesday the rotation continued, but the bleeding slowed and the S&P 500 dropped for a third consecutive day with a minimal loss. Before Thursdays open, it was reported that Mays core PCE price index rose by 0.3%, and for the year rose by an expected 3.4%, the highest since October 2023 and well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. During Thursdays regular session, Apple lost 6% after announcing price hikes on its iPads and MacBooks, pointing to rising demand for memory and storage. Microsoft dropped more than 3% after announcing higher prices on its Xbox gaming consoles, citing surging component costs. Fellow tech giants Alphabet and Meta Platforms also closed the session lower, and the S&P 500 was down for a fourth consecutive day, just below the flatline level. On Friday chip stocks were weaker after a New York Times report that OpenAI is considering delaying its IPO to next year because of SpaceXs poor performance following its debut and overall volatility in AI-related shares. And the S&P 500 closed down at 7,353 with losses on every day this week. From a technical perspective the S&P 500 still remains above its 10 June support level of 7,267, and thankfully the losses in the last half of this week were minimal. Next week will be another holiday shortened week, and with the markets closed on Friday, the payrolls/employment numbers will be announced on Thursday. For TSP TIPS there is not much change in the Performance Rankings and Composite Scores, but the I fund made a new record high on Monday. That said, we will make an end of the month fine-tuning reallocation in both the Moderate and Conservative models only.
The S&P 500 broke a string of two consecutive up weeks, down -1.99% this week and closing Friday at 7,353. Monday was rotation day as investors rotated out of the Magnificent Seven names, with Amazon dropping nearly -5%, Meta Platforms falling -2%, and Alphabet shares slipping -5%, notching their worst daily performance in over a year. On Tuesday fears of higher interest rates from the Fed and concerns over massive spending on AI resulted in a second day of declines, with the S&P500 losing -1.44% and the NASDAQ 100 losing more than double that at -3.24%. On Wednesday the rotation continued, but the bleeding slowed and the S&P 500 dropped for a third consecutive day with a minimal loss. Before Thursdays open, it was reported that Mays core PCE price index rose by 0.3%, and for the year rose by an expected 3.4%, the highest since October 2023 and well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. During Thursdays regular session, Apple lost 6% after announcing price hikes on its iPads and MacBooks, pointing to rising demand for memory and storage. Microsoft dropped more than 3% after announcing higher prices on its Xbox gaming consoles, citing surging component costs. Fellow tech giants Alphabet and Meta Platforms also closed the session lower, and the S&P 500 was down for a fourth consecutive day, just below the flatline level. On Friday chip stocks were weaker after a New York Times report that OpenAI is considering delaying its IPO to next year because of SpaceXs poor performance following its debut and overall volatility in AI-related shares. And the S&P 500 closed down at 7,353 with losses on every day this week. From a technical perspective the S&P 500 still remains above its 10 June support level of 7,267, and thankfully the losses in the last half of this week were minimal. Next week will be another holiday shortened week, and with the markets closed on Friday, the payrolls/employment numbers will be announced on Thursday. For TSP TIPS there is not much change in the Performance Rankings and Composite Scores, but the I fund made a new record high on Monday. That said, we will make an end of the month fine-tuning reallocation in both the Moderate and Conservative models only.