TSP funds: a broad gain, led by stocks

Every TSP fund finished higher on Thursday, June 18. The stock funds did the heavy lifting and the safer funds barely moved.

The S Fund led at +1.68%, closing at $116.1540. The C Fund rose 1.09% to $120.6745. The I Fund gained 0.98% to $65.5819, just shy of the 1% mark. The F Fund added 0.24% to $21.0112, and the G Fund ticked up 0.01% to $19.9844.

Spikes over 1%

Two core funds cleared 1% in a day: the S Fund (+1.68%) and the C Fund (+1.09%). The longest-dated L Funds, 2055 through 2075, each gained 1.12%. There were no drops anywhere on the board.

Why the funds line up with their benchmarks

The C Fund tracks the S&P 500, which rose 1.08% in the index data supplied. The fund's 1.09% gain sits right on top of that.

The S Fund follows the Dow Jones U.S. Completion index, essentially the U.S. market outside the S&P 500, so mid-size and smaller companies. It outran the C Fund by about 0.6 percentage points. Its one-day gain was also bigger than its 5-day gain of 1.53%, which means the four sessions before Thursday netted out slightly negative. Today recovered that and then some.

The I Fund tracks MSCI ACWI ex-US ex-China. Its 0.98% gain was solid, and its 5-day gain of 3.02% is the strongest on the board. Its year-to-date return of 17.05% also leads every fund.

The F Fund follows the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate bond index. Its 0.24% gain fits a day when the 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.451%, down 0.27%. Falling yields push bond prices up. The G Fund pays a Treasury-based rate and does not swing with markets, so +0.01% is what you would expect.

L Funds: more stock, bigger move

The L Funds blend the five core funds, so their results follow how much stock each one holds. L Income rose 0.33%. L 2030 gained 0.64%, L 2040 gained 0.83%, and L 2050 gained 0.94%. The 2055 through 2075 funds share the same 1.12% gain and the same 12.92% year-to-date figure, which tells you their mix is currently identical.

What moved IRA index funds and ETFs

The index figures supplied are labeled as the prior session close, so they may not line up to the minute with the TSP close. They tell a similar story anyway.

The S&P 500 rose 1.08% to 7500.58. The Nasdaq Composite did better, up 1.91% to 26517.93. The Dow Industrials gained only 0.14% to 51564.699, so the Nasdaq's gain was far larger than the Dow's.

For ETFs, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) rose 1.16% to $369.99, in line with the broad U.S. market. The Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS) gained 0.72% to $86.77. The Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) added 0.27% to $73.34, helped by the lower Treasury yield.

What it means for your plan

A day like this feels good, but one session rarely changes a long-term outcome. If you hold the C, S, or I funds, or a broad ETF like VTI, your balance got a nudge up. If you are mostly in the G Fund, nothing happened, which is how that fund is designed to work.

The five-day and year-to-date columns give better context than a single day. The I Fund is up 17.05% this year, the S Fund 14.25%, and the C Fund 9.96%. The F Fund sits at 0.72% and the G Fund at 2.0%. Those gaps reflect different risk levels, and your own timeline and comfort with swings should decide your mix. Nothing here is personal advice. Most savers do well by sticking with a plan and checking in on a schedule instead of reacting to a single day.