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The bears continue to control the market. The selling pressure this week was a continuation of Jerome Powell's hawkish speech last Friday. Stocks were down the first three days of the week and opened down Thursday, but life in the bulls ahead of the August Jobs report brought the S&P 500 into positive territory for the day ending a four-day losing streak for the C-fund. That momentum carried into Friday morning where the August Jobs report was declared a Goldilocks report and was celebrated in the morning jolting stock prices higher. That was short lived. Investors were quick to take profits intraday Friday and those early gains were quickly erased in the afternoon and eventually the TSP U.S. stock funds were down for the day.

The S-fund was down every day this week stretching a losing streak to six days. The I-fund managed to keep some gains Friday to end its five-day losing streak.

In the end all three TSP stock funds were down more than 3% for the week with the S-fund lagging the group with a 4.5% weekly loss. The F-fund was down more than 1% for the week. All of the TSP funds outside of the G-fund now have a three-week streak of losses.

The indices seemed to be oversold at this point but there is not much in which to look forward. The Fed is set to raise rates despite a deeper consequence to the job market moving forward. The question is whether the September rate hike will be 0.5% or 0.75%. The next major economic numbers will be the CPI report that will come September 13th. Until then, the June lows for the C and S-fund will be a target for the bears who think the worse has not been priced in just yet.


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Here are the weekly, monthly, and annual TSP fund returns for the week ending September 2:




SPY (S&P 500 / C-fund) had slipped below its 50-day EMA the previous Friday and that ended up not being a fluke in the support. The ETF slipped further away from the moving average. The C-fund did managed to pick up a day of gains Thursday and was up early Friday. But the buying ended and selling accelerated late Friday finishing the C-fund at its lows for the week. The C-fund was down 3.23% for the week and starts the new month of September with a loss of 0.75% after two days.




The Dow Completion Index (S-fund) was down everyday this week which sets a six day streak of losses for the small cap fund. DWCPF actually ended the previous week just about even with its 50-day EMA so there was hope it would provide some sort of support. It did not. By Tuesday afternoon the price momentum was separating lower from the 50-da EMA. The index gapped down Thursday but came off its lows and followed up with a gap up Friday. However the bears retook control late Friday and the S-fund ended its week at its lows as well. The S-fund lagged the TSP funds with a loss of 4.51% loss for the week and start September down 1.82%.




EFA (EAFE Index / I-fund) had a similar week to the U.S. stocks funds but was given a gain for Friday (+0.07%). Nonetheless the I-fund ended the week down 3.02% and down 1.51% for September. The I-fund is just 0.73% above its July low.




BND (Bonds / F-fund) was down with stocks for most of the week but managed to hold onto some of the gains from the early trading hours of Friday. The F-fund gained 0.39% Friday but that still left it with a 1.03% loss for the week. The BND chart is in decline and remains in a downward trading channel.




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

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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.