After a slow start on Monday and some weakness on Friday, stocks bounced back last week and nearly recovered all of the prior week’s losses. The economic data and the earnings reports were a mixed bag as we saw a weaker than expected GDP report but a strong weekly jobs report. Despite some strong gains in the I-fund, Europe continues to struggle with economic growth and U.S. investors will be watching this closely.
Here are the up to date TSP fund returns through April 26:
The S&P 500 stretched toward the prior April highs before backing off some last week. Whenever you see a chart start in the lower left hand corner, and end in the upper right, it is hard to argue with the bullish case, but we saw some of the leading indices make lower highs recently and that concerns some that the S&P 500 may be peaking here as well.
Chart provided courtesy of www.decisionpoint.com, analysis by TSP Talk
Bonds, via this TLT ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), are still flirting with their highs which makes for an interesting situation.
Chart provided courtesy of www.decisionpoint.com, analysis by TSP Talk
Bond yields are at 2013 lows (when bond prices go up, yields go down.) This is something you would normally see when the stock market is falling. Investors tend to move to bonds when stocks fall, but here we have bond prices close to their highs (yields at lows), and stocks close to all-time highs. It’s not unheard of to see bonds and stocks move in the same direction, but to see stocks at all-time highs while yields are near all-time lows is unusual.
Good luck, and thanks for reading. We will be back here next week with another TSP Wrap Up.
Tom Crowley
www.tsptalk.com
Weekly Wrap-Ups Archive
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The legal stuff: This information is for educational purposes only! This is not advice or are commendation. 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.
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