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Stocks were mixed but mostly higher on Friday following a Goldilocks jobs report -- more jobs were created than expected, but the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 3.8% and that might keep the Fed at bay for a while. The Dow gained 116-points, the Nasdaq was flat, and the S&P 500 gained back what it lost on Thursday. The I-fund lagged and small caps led with the threat of another rate hike perhaps waning after the jobs report.

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The bulls amplified their presence in the final week of August. All four TSP funds outside of the G-fund suffered losses for August, but those who bought into the selling earlier in the month were rewarded with a rally this week.

The greatest winners this week were those holding the S-fund. The small cap TSP fund has produced a six-day winning streak and has gained 4.75% over those six days and a 4.24% gain for this week alone.

The catalyst for the bulls' success ...

After another strong open, stocks drifted lower the rest of the day with the Dow, S&P 500, and small caps closing near the lows of the day, although the small caps did hold onto a modest gain. UnitedHealth, the heaviest weighted stock in the Dow Jones, was drag on the Dow and large cap tech helped the S&P 500, but the equal Weighted S&P 500 was down about double the loss of the S&P 500. Bonds were up with the 10-year Treasury moving down on the day.

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Greetings

A quick review of August: This was the first month we've closed down since last February.

While we did close down -1.77%, this isn't bad when you consider off the 18-Aug bottom we were down -5.53% intra-month. For ranking all Aug from 1960, we finished 46th best of 64, placing Aug-2023 in the bottom 28%.

The chart below shows we dipped below -4.06% (the average-of-loses), but managed to recover a portion of the loss with a -1.77% finish.
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Stocks opened higher on Wednesday, hit intraday highs shortly after the opening bell, then moved mostly sideways the rest of the day and closed up, but off the highs. It was impressive that the bulls were able to hold onto most of those early gains into the close because the indices may have been due for a pause and the bears had been selling every rally before this week, but not so much this week. Whether that's because it is a pre-holiday reversal week, or because there has been a change in ...