TommyIV's TSP Talk Blog

Stocks reached their highs early this week, became mostly stagnant intra-week, and finished Friday with a sell-off to push large caps into negative territory. The sell-off Friday was credited to the fall in the Turkish currency after President Trump announced he would double steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey. This caused trouble in foreign markets and then in U.S. stocks. Traders were running out of reasons to buy as earnings were wrapping up and we are in a slow part of the year for trading. The Turkey turmoil was the perfect excuse to get out of stocks and lock in the gains of the earnings season. You could look at this as an overall healthy move for stocks that have been too close to highs without any real buying opportunities.

Small caps were able to hold onto some early gains of the week giving the S-fund a gain of 0.69% to lead the TSP funds while the C-fund fell red. Bonds were also up as they were a safe haven from the decline in equities. The I-fund lagged the TSP funds as it was directly affected by the Turkey economic trouble.

We have a couple more weeks left in August so trading volume will remain low; a factor which could invoke larger moves in the indices.




Here are the weekly, monthly, and annual TSP fund returns for the week ending August 10th:




The SPY (S&P 500 / C-fund) gapped down Friday after President Trump announced his decision to double to tariffs on Turkey causing the country's currency to slide. There was not really any technical damage done to the index. An open gap was produced but the index did not fall below its 20-day EMA and has a number of supporting trend lines below. The pull back could have been coming and traders were looking for a reason to give relief to large cap stocks. The C-fund was down 0.18% for the week.




The Dow Completion Index (S-fund) produced gains for this week with decent earnings from smaller companies attracting buyers. The index again could not move above the established highs of the last two months. Small caps were less affected by the problems in Turkey so they was able to keep ahold of most of the gains for the week. The S-fund led the TSP funds with a gain of 0.69%.




EFA (EAFE Index / I-fund) took a significant decline Friday after a week of trading that seemed in good shape. This drop left a large open gap and forfeited any healthy technical support the index was developing. However, this may be a good buying opportunity if this was a reactionary sell-off. The gap will want to be filled and the 200-day EMA will needed to be tested to do that. The I-fund fell 1.46% for the week to lag the TSP funds.




AGG (Bonds / F-fund) gapped up Friday after investors retreated to the safety of bonds following the economic trouble in Turkey. The index jumped above the highs of May and July intraday but fell back below them by the close. This left an open gap in the index below current prices that will be easy to fill with resistance above. We will see if the weekend gave traders more confidence to buy equities or whether they have more trust in the safety of bonds. The F-fund was up 0.43% for the week.




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 the Market Comments page. If you need more help deciding what to do with your account, perhaps one of our Premium Services can help.


Thomas A Crowley
www.tsptalk.com
Weekly Wrap-Ups Archive
Facebook | Twitter

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.