TSP Talk Weekly Wrap Ups

The market had a lot to process this week and investors' feelings changed day to day to give us a week of inconsistency. Monday's open was the first chance investors got to react to the March Jobs report that came out when the market was closed the previous Friday. Stock indices opened down to start the week but that opening price would be the low for the week. Prices climbed back through intraday action Monday.

The steady climb higher was disrupted by the Consumer Price Index ...

Index performances were mixed in the shortened week that followed the previous week's steep rally. While the S&P 500 price oscillated through the four day week, the C-fund eventually ended up just 0.06% down from where it started. Action for small caps was not as favorable. The S-fund dropped 2.79% in the four days but that was only giving up little more than half of the gains acquired the previous week.

The I-fund stood alone with gains for the week among the TSP stock ...

At the start of the month, few could have foreseen the looming bank crisis that would have everyone question the stability of the economy. Naturally stocks sold off sharply in the first couple weeks as investors feared the worst, a national bank run that would collapse the banking system taking everyone's cash with it. Regulators, including the Federal Reserve, took extreme measures to prevent the worst, and in doing so they set up a 'goldilocks environment' that would spark a rapid recovery ...

Another volatile week leaves stocks with weekly gains but not without pain. The C and S-fund reached their highs on Tuesday; the S-fund led the way with a 3.12% gain in the first two days. Those first couple days of strength led into the FOMC rate decision Wednesday afternoon. The market was higher intraday when the Fed announce a 25bps rate hike, this was what was expected with the Fed trying to balance their battle against inflation and the liquidity concerns across the banking ...

The unknown, the overreactions, the pessimism followed by optimism followed by more pessimism; this all added up to a volatile week that would have certainly been an emotional experience for anyone holding stocks through the week. Coming into Monday it seemed like we were bound for mayhem. A second bank had failed over the weekend, being the third largest bank to fail in the U.S. after the second largest bank failed just days before. But swift action taken by a number of regulators that included ...