TSP Talk Blog

Stocks were mixed after a very choppy day of trading. The Dow posted a modest gain of 82-points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down slightly, but small caps took a 1% loss. The dollar was up, which has been a headwind for stocks, but yesterday oil gave up an early gain to close negative, and that may have helped stocks move off their lows.

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Stocks opened higher yesterday, but it turned into a Turnaround Tuesday as the opening 1% gain vanished quickly and that triggered a stampede for the exits. The Dow lost 491-points, and the 79-point loss in the S&P 500, along with the 12-point loss on Monday, nearly erased all of Friday's monster rally. It lost 2% on the day, as did the small caps fund. The Nasdaq lagged with a near 3% decline.

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Stocks slipped on Monday after a very choppy day of trading but the indices stayed in a fairly tight trading range. The Dow gave up 62-points and only the Nasdaq posted any kind of meaningful loss. Of course that was coming off of the big gains on Friday. Bonds were down as yields ticked higher. The dollar was down, and that weakness have to continue if we want to see stocks moving higher, and we'll talk about that below.

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Stocks explode higher on Friday with a surge of buying at the open, and again at the close, with very few signs of selling in between. The Dow gained 823-points and it was the lagging index percentage-wise with the S&P, Nasdaq, small caps and Transports all gaining between 3% and 4% on the day. The question on all investors' minds is whether this is an indication of a bottoming process, or if the action is just a typical bear market rally destined to fail again.

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Stocks rallied yesterday in another volatile day after stocks opened up near their highs, lost it all, and then rallied into the close to recapture those morning highs. That set up a nice positive reversal day on the charts. The Dow gained 194-points, while small caps and the Nasdaq led on the upside. Yields fell so the F-fund had another good day. It's been very choppy out there and we'll have to see if the bulls can put together back to back positive days.

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