TSP Funds at the Close

Most TSP funds finished Thursday higher. The exception was the F Fund, and the standout was the S Fund.

The C Fund rose 0.58% to $107.5417. That matches the S&P 500's 0.58% gain, which is what you would expect from a fund that tracks that index. It is up 1.66% over five days and 15.98% for the year.

The I Fund gained 0.36% to $53.5159. It leads the lineup year to date at 27.63%, though its five-day gain is a modest 0.47%.

The F Fund slipped 0.22% to $20.9030. The G Fund was flat as usual, up 0.01% to $19.4337, since it follows a Treasury rate and not market prices.

The Big Mover: S Fund

The S Fund jumped 1.41% to $101.3435, the only fund above the 1% mark. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Completion index, which covers U.S. companies outside the S&P 500. The data I have doesn't say what drove the jump, so I won't guess. One useful detail is that its five-day gain is 1.23%, smaller than Thursday's gain alone. That means the S Fund was down slightly over the prior four sessions, and Thursday erased that and then some. Its year-to-date return is 12.11%, still behind the C and I Funds.

Why the F Fund Fell

The F Fund follows the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate bond index. Bond prices move opposite to yields, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 3.991%, up 0.96% on the day, or roughly four hundredths of a percentage point. The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) lost 0.20% to $74.92, almost the same as the F Fund's drop.

L Funds

The L Funds are blends of the five core funds, so their results follow their stock-to-bond mix. The more stock-heavy the fund, the bigger the gain:

  • L Income: +0.16%
  • L 2030: +0.35%
  • L 2040: +0.43%
  • L 2050: +0.49%
  • L 2055 through L 2070 and L 2075: +0.61%

The longer-dated funds are mostly stocks, so they captured more of the C, S and I Fund gains. L Income holds more G and F, which kept it close to flat.

What Moved IRA Index Funds and ETFs

The index and ETF figures below are labeled as the prior session's close, so they may not line up exactly with the TSP's Thursday close.

The S&P 500 rose 0.58% to 6738.44. The Nasdaq Composite did better, up 0.89% to 22941.801. The Dow lagged with a 0.31% gain to 46734.609.

The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) gained 0.64% to $331.01, in line with the broad U.S. market. The Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS) rose 0.58% to $74.71. BND fell 0.20% as yields edged up. A typical stock-and-bond IRA mix likely saw stocks lift it and bonds hold it back a little.

What It Means for Your Plan

A day like this is mostly noise. The S Fund's 1.41% gain looks large, but it follows a flat-to-down stretch, and the five-day figure shows how small it is in context. The F Fund's dip was a small reaction to higher yields, not a signal that anything is broken.

If you are invested through a L Fund or a broad index fund and contribute regularly, one session rarely changes the outcome of a decades-long plan. Your allocation, your contribution rate and your time horizon matter far more than any single Thursday. Check your mix against your own goals and timeline, and let the daily numbers be information, not instructions.