Friday's TSP close

It was a down day for stock funds, with the safe end of the menu barely moving. Here is how the core funds finished on Friday, Jan. 30.

  • C Fund: $111.1000, down 0.42% (5-day +0.35%, YTD +1.23%)
  • S Fund: $102.8322, down 1.56% (5-day -2.5%, YTD +1.15%)
  • I Fund: $58.7858, down 1.19% (5-day +0.71%, YTD +4.92%)
  • F Fund: $20.9246, down 0.07% (YTD +0.31%)
  • G Fund: $19.6595, up 0.02% (YTD +0.34%)

The G Fund was the only core fund to rise, and it rises a little almost every day because it pays a Treasury-based rate with no price swings.

Two drops over 1%

The S Fund fell 1.56%, the biggest one-day drop on the board. Its five-day return of -2.5% is also the only negative weekly number among the funds listed. Because it follows the Dow Jones U.S. Completion index, which covers mid-sized and smaller companies outside the S&P 500, it can move differently from the large-company C Fund. Friday was one of those days.

The I Fund dropped 1.19%. Even so, it is up 0.71% over five days and 4.92% for the year, the strongest year-to-date number of any fund here. One bad session barely dents that.

C and F funds followed their benchmarks

The C Fund tracks the S&P 500, which slipped 0.43%. The fund's 0.42% decline is almost a mirror image, and that is the point of an index fund.

The F Fund follows the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate bond index. Its 0.07% dip fits a day when bond prices were a touch softer. The 10-year Treasury yield ticked up to 4.241%, a 0.33% rise in the yield itself. When yields edge up, bond prices tend to edge down.

L Funds sorted by stock exposure

The L Funds blend the five core funds, so their results line up with how much stock each one holds. L Income, the most conservative, fell 0.22%. L 2030 dropped 0.47% and L 2040 fell 0.60%. L 2050 slid 0.69%. The longest-dated funds, L 2055 through L 2075, all fell 0.83%. Every L Fund shows a 5-day gain of 0.1%, and year-to-date returns run from 0.94% for L Income to 2.49% for the 2055 and later funds.

What moved IRA index funds and ETFs

The index and ETF figures below come from the prior session close, so they may not line up perfectly with the TSP's Friday numbers.

  • S&P 500: 6939.03, down 0.43%
  • Dow: 48892.469, down 0.36%
  • Nasdaq Composite: 23461.82, down 0.94%
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI): $340.57, down 0.50%
  • Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS): $79.66, down 1.59%
  • Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND): $74.23, down 0.04%

The Nasdaq lagged the Dow by a little under a point, so the weakness leaned toward growth-heavy names. VTI, which holds the whole U.S. market, landed between the S&P and the Nasdaq. VXUS, the broad international fund, took the largest hit at 1.59%. That is a wider drop than the TSP's I Fund, which makes sense because the two follow different indexes. The I Fund excludes China, while VXUS covers a broader international mix.

BND barely budged, which is typical for a broad bond fund.

The numbers here do not tell us why markets slid, so I will not guess at a cause.

What it means for your plan

A 1% to 1.5% drop in the smaller-company and international funds looks sharp on a screen, but one day rarely matters for a plan built over decades. The I Fund is still up nearly 5% this year, and most funds here show gains over the past five days. If you contribute every paycheck, a down day simply means your next contribution buys at a slightly lower price. Check that your mix still fits your timeline and comfort with swings, then let the plan do its job. This recap is general information, not personal advice.