The I-fund's Success
March belongs to the I-fund, so far. The less popular I-fund was the TSP fund to hold through the first full week of March. The I-fund accumulated a gain of 1.79% over the five days. Meanwhile, the C-fund netted a loss of 0.23% while the S-fund's gain was a mere 0.15% for the week.
Only eleven TSP Talk AutoTracker members held 100% I-fund through the week, and those eleven share the title of best return for the week among the TSP Talk AutoTracker community. They represent a slim group of I-fund investors. The average allocation of non-premium AutoTracker members holds only 4% of the I-fund. By contrast, the average allocation for each of the C and S-fund is 26%.
The I-fund's outperformance this week pushed its 2024 return past the S-fund's. Its 2024 return rose to 5.4% while the S-fund holds a 2024 return of 4.5%. Both are decent returns for less than 3 months. It has paid to hold the stock funds so far this year.
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Here are the weekly, monthly, and annual TSP fund returns for the week ending March 8:
The C-fund price reached another new all-time high on Thursday. The February Jobs Report pushed the S&P 500 up further Friday morning, but the index peaked early, and traders sold through the rest of the day to take the index off its new highs and into negative territory for the week by the close.
The large cap index did not get its usual help from its large tech stocks this week. Most of the top tech names ended the week with deeper losses than the index. We have to wonder if investors are starting to see these stocks as overvalued, an outlook that could lead to a deeper correction of the whole index. Or is this short pull back an opportunity for more investors to buy in at the lower prices? These stocks and the S&P 500 have been on a steady run higher for months now. How long can this last?
The next major hurdle for the S&P 500 comes on Tuesday with the release of the February Consumer Price Index (CPI), a report on inflation. The market has its eyes on a rate cut in June by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). A higher-than-expected CPI could kick that rate cut further down the road, something stock investors will take seriously.
Good luck and thanks for reading! We will be back here next week with another TSP 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.
