The first week of April was not kind to stockholders. The TSP stock funds pulled back sharply in the first two days of the week, modest gains on Wednesday brought some relief, but a late day sell-off on Thursday erased those gains and more.
The C-fund was down 2% through the week by the end of Thursday and the S-fund was down nearly 3% for the week. But a strong jobs report on Friday gave life back to the bulls. The C-fund gained more than 1% on Friday bringing its weekly loss below 1%.
Here are the weekly, monthly, and annual TSP fund returns for the week ending April 5:
Best IFTs of the Week
Only two members among the TSP Talk AutoTracker were able to outperform the G-fund last week: RexTheDog and Tinslinger.
RexTheDog came out on top for the week with a gain of 0.61%. They held 100% G-fund most of the week then moved to 50% C-fund and 50% G-fund on Thursday. Moving into stocks on Thursday got RexTheDog a lower price on the C-fund and set them up for the gains that came Friday. However, this buying low was not intentional. The S&P 500 (C-fund) was up 0.6% for the day near the trade deadline only to eventually end the day with a 1.22% loss.
Tinslinger also beat the G-fund this week with a gain of 0.27%. They also came into the week holding the G-fund then bought the S-fund on Tuesday.
The Week Ahead
With investors consumed by the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, you’d think a strong jobs report would spook prices lower. Investors fear the Fed will keep borrowing costs higher for longer. But while jobs were added in March and unemployment dropped, wage growth was contained. Could the labor market thrive without contributing to rising inflation?
Fed members have actually suggested their focus now is more on inflation data than the hiring data. They’ve seen the economy grow while still seeing inflation come down. This coming Wednesday will be a big test of that. The latest Consumer Price Index will be released, and the Fed wants to see a move toward their 2% goal in order to entertain a rate cut in June.
Investors also face some of the largest banks’ earnings reports this coming week. Banks have been successful since the fear of a bank run a year ago. Now their latest numbers will show investors how consumers have handled this high interest rate environment.
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Good luck and thanks for reading! We will be back here next week with another TSP Talk Wrap Up. You can read our daily market commentary at TSP Talk - Market Commentary. If you need some help deciding what to do with your account, perhaps one of our premium services can help.
Thomas Crowley
(TommyIV)
www.tsptalk.com
Weekly Wrap-Ups Archive
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The legal stuff: This information is for educational purposes only! This is not advice or a recommendation. We do not give investment advice. Do not act on this data. Do not buy, sell or trade the funds mentioned herein based on this information. We may trade these funds differently than discussed above. We use additional methods and strategies to determine fund positions.
