TSP Weekly Wrap-Up – Market Rattled

It’s your weekly dose of TSP Talk from www.tsptalk.com.

Despite a good start on Tuesday, the stock market and the TSP stock funds were down sharply last week following concerns that the Obama administration is planning to impose taxes and regulations on banks, which will likely hurt their bottom line.

For the week, the stock funds were hit hard with the I-fund leading the downside charge to the tune of 5.13%. The C-fund was down 3.88%, and the S-fund lost 2.62%. The bond fund (F-fund) picked up 0.25% while the G-fund added 0.07%.

For January, all of the TSP stock funds are now down, while the F-fund is up 1.48%.

The charts took a bit of a hit technically, as some of the shorter-term trends were broken, and we saw the S&P 500 close below the 50-day EMA (exponential moving average) for the first time in months.

Chart provided courtesy of www.decisionpoint.com, analysis by TSP Talk

I usually wait 3 to 5 days to see if that kind of technical break holds, or if the market is able to recover from what could have been a knee-jerk reaction.

I am still in the optimistic camp but hanging on by a thread. If I am back here next week and the S&P 500 remains below the 50-day EMA, you will probably hear a different tune from me.

Good luck, and thanks for reading. We will be back here next week with another TSP Wrap Up. Our market commentary is updated daily on www.tsptalk.com

Tom Crowley
TSP Talk