The S&P 500 notched its third consecutive up week, setting new record highs on Thursday before closing Friday at 7,785. On Monday the S&P 500 finished little changed as uncertainty over the Middle East conflict continued to hang over markets. However, the afternoon saw a major joint announcement where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and leaders from six major Wall Street institutions signed memorandums of understanding on how the next wave of the AI build out will be funded, marking a major shift in how companies will pay for compute going forward and raising over $500 billion in thirdparty capital. On Tuesday the S&P 500 fell slightly again with Alphabet falling more than 2%, notching its fourth losing session in five. Before Wednesdays open it was reported that July CPI increased by 0.1% month over month, while the annual inflation rate slowed for a second consecutive month to 3.4%. These tame reports gave the S&P 500 a boost, with the benchmark closing higher for the first time in three sessions. Wall Street got another look at U.S. inflation on Thursday with the July reading of the producer price index (PPI) coming in unchanged, below an expected call for an increase of 0.2%. With a second day of positive inflation news, the S&P 500 continued into uncharted water with a new intraday high above 7,800 and a new record closing high just shy of that at 7,798. On Friday July retail sales numbers showed an unexpected decline, while August consumer confidence fell, reversing course from the improvements seen in June and July. As such, the S&P 500 sold off slightly, but did make it three up weeks in a row. From a technical perspective, this recent bullish breakout has also been broad as the Small and Mid-Cap indices also scored new record highs this week. Next week is light on economic news with the Fed Minutes on Wednesday and earnings reports slowing their pace. For TSP TIPS it certainly has been a nice week as the C fund made a new record high on Thursday. However, what is more noteworthy is the fact that both the S and I funds made three new highs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. With all three funds sitting with maxed out Composite Scores of 100, we recommend no changes to our current investment mix.
The S&P 500 notched its third consecutive up week, setting new record highs on Thursday before closing Friday at 7,785. On Monday the S&P 500 finished little changed as uncertainty over the Middle East conflict continued to hang over markets. However, the afternoon saw a major joint announcement where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and leaders from six major Wall Street institutions signed memorandums of understanding on how the next wave of the AI build out will be funded, marking a major shift in how companies will pay for compute going forward and raising over $500 billion in thirdparty capital. On Tuesday the S&P 500 fell slightly again with Alphabet falling more than 2%, notching its fourth losing session in five. Before Wednesdays open it was reported that July CPI increased by 0.1% month over month, while the annual inflation rate slowed for a second consecutive month to 3.4%. These tame reports gave the S&P 500 a boost, with the benchmark closing higher for the first time in three sessions. Wall Street got another look at U.S. inflation on Thursday with the July reading of the producer price index (PPI) coming in unchanged, below an expected call for an increase of 0.2%. With a second day of positive inflation news, the S&P 500 continued into uncharted water with a new intraday high above 7,800 and a new record closing high just shy of that at 7,798. On Friday July retail sales numbers showed an unexpected decline, while August consumer confidence fell, reversing course from the improvements seen in June and July. As such, the S&P 500 sold off slightly, but did make it three up weeks in a row. From a technical perspective, this recent bullish breakout has also been broad as the Small and Mid-Cap indices also scored new record highs this week. Next week is light on economic news with the Fed Minutes on Wednesday and earnings reports slowing their pace. For TSP TIPS it certainly has been a nice week as the C fund made a new record high on Thursday. However, what is more noteworthy is the fact that both the S and I funds made three new highs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. With all three funds sitting with maxed out Composite Scores of 100, we recommend no changes to our current investment mix.