Thursday's TSP Scorecard

Thursday was a quiet day for large U.S. stocks and a strong one for international and smaller companies. The I Fund was the only fund to move more than 1% in a day, rising 1.05% to $64.4268. The S Fund added 0.54% to $116.1112.

The C Fund slipped 0.01% to $118.3881, essentially unchanged. That matches its benchmark, the S&P 500, which also fell 0.01%. The C Fund simply mirrors that index, so when the index goes nowhere, so does the fund.

The S Fund tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Completion index, which covers everything in the U.S. market outside the S&P 500. A gain of 0.54% while the C Fund stood still means the smaller and mid-sized companies did better than the giants. Over five days the S Fund is up 1.64%, the best of the individual funds, and its year-to-date gain is 14.21%.

The I Fund follows the MSCI ACWI ex-US ex-China index. Its 1.05% jump is the day's headline, but the five-day figure is still down 0.79%, so this was a rebound inside a softer week. Year to date it leads everything at 14.99%.

Bonds and the G Fund

The F Fund rose 0.06% to $21.0942, in line with its Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate benchmark. A small move like that fits a small drop in yields, since bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. The five-day gain is 0.64% and the year-to-date gain is 1.12%.

The G Fund, as always, did its steady thing: up 0.01% to $20.0018, with 2.09% year to date. It tracks a Treasury rate and doesn't swing with the market.

L Funds

The L Funds blend the other five funds, so their results depend on how much each one holds in stocks. The longer-dated funds, with more in the I and S funds, did best. L 2055 through L 2075 each rose 0.43%. L 2050 gained 0.36%, L 2040 gained 0.32%, and L 2030 gained 0.25%. L Income, the most conservative, rose 0.13%.

The five-day numbers are all slightly negative, from -0.03% for L Income to -0.49% for the 2055-and-later funds. The C and I funds both lost ground this week, and they carry the most weight in these blends.

What Moved IRA Holdings

The index figures below are labeled as the prior session's close, so they won't line up exactly with the TSP numbers.

The S&P 500 closed at 7,357.49, down 0.01%. The Dow rose 0.14% to 51,920.621, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.46% to 25,358.6. The gap suggests technology-heavy names lagged while other parts of the market held up.

Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) gained 0.09% to $363.98. It holds nearly the whole U.S. market, so it landed between the flat S&P 500 and the stronger completion segment. Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS) rose 0.88% to $85.08, which fits with the I Fund's strong day.

Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND) added 0.07% to $73.60. The 10-year Treasury yield eased 0.23% to 4.392%, which is the kind of small dip that helps bond prices a little.

What it means for your plan

One day rarely matters for a long-term plan, and this one matters even less than most. Stocks mostly went sideways, and the biggest move was a rebound in a fund that is still lower over five days. The bigger picture is what counts: year-to-date gains of 7.88% in the C Fund, 14.21% in the S Fund, and 14.99% in the I Fund, with bonds and the G Fund doing their slower job. If your contributions are automatic and your mix still suits your timeline, a day like this calls for no action. This is a general recap, not advice for your particular situation.