The stock market is fluctuating with each new significant news report from Iraq. Each American and British forward advance sends the market up. Any rumor or weapons of mass destruction or evidence of those weapons and any significant Iraqi resistance send the markets down.
Investors are hanging on with the large swings in the financial markets. How is your TSP doing through all of this?
The official results will be released in the next several days. So, while these are not the final figures, it will give you a pretty good idea of how your retirement plan is faring during this uncertainty. We cannot calculate any dividends or expenses that will impact the performance of a fund so the final results, which we will report as soon as they are available, may vary from these early results.
The S fund did not fare badly in March despite the turmoil. It will be up approximately 1.48% for the month. This is the first time in four months the fund has had an upturn. October (3.38%) and November (6.76%) 2002 were the last two months this fund had a positive return.
The I fund, which contains many international companies, did not do so well. It continued its losing ways and will be down about 2.39% for March. This fund has had a negative return for each of the past three months and also a negative return in 7 of the past 12 months.
The C fund had a very small positive return for March. The S&P 500 index (which is the index on which the C fund is based) went up about 7 points in March for a positive return of about .008%. While that isn’t much, it is certainly better than the past three months. The C fund lost 5.85% in December, 2.35% in January and 2.56% in February.
The returns are for March and reflect a return as of the end of the trading day on March 31, 2003.
