Good Day, No doubt about it, this is a give and take market right now. One day it’s up big and the next day it takes most or all of it away. The Geo Political news is an absolute mess. Underneath the surface though, we have a market with strong earnings that wants to move higher if given the chance to do so. Earnings season is off to strong start. Following the first week of the reporting season, 76% of the 58 S&P 500 companies that have posted results so far have exceeded earnings expectations, far surpassing the first-week average of 68% and slightly higher than last quarter’s 73% figure, according to Bank of America. Nevertheless, the government shutdown continues to create confusion in the market due to the cancelation of reports on which economists and the Fed rely. Even though all the government generated reports have been cancelled since the shutdown began, there is one exception coming this Friday. That is the CPI or Consumer Price Index. The Department of labor will bring back staff to work on the key consumer inflation report amid the ongoing government shutdown. The report will be released at 8:30 AM ET on October 24th which is nine days after it was originally scheduled to be released. Why is this report being generated when the others are not? The Social Security Administration  needs the third quarter CPI report (which tracks a broad basket of good and services over time) for calculating and publishing annual cost-of -living  adjustments before November 1st. To say this report will determine where the market goes from here is an understatement. It’s the only game in town! It’s reading of inflation will effect the market both directly and indirectly (when the Fed meets to consider another rate decrease in November). Not that this report doesn’t carry some heavy wait normally but it till be even more so now. Just a side note. It has been suggested that moderate democrats might get together and negotiate an end to the government shutdown next week. That will be nice if it happens but I promise you I won’t be holding my breath. Why can’t they just vote to fund the government as is and debate all this other stuff later? Isn’t that supposed to  their job?   Oh that’s right, I almost forgot, that would require a certain level of common sense and maturity which appear to be traits that many of these politicians simply don’t possess. I feel like I’m being held hostage or something. Don’t you??  Folks keep praying for our government and for all the employees effected by this debacle!

Trading so far today has yielded the following results. Our TSP allotment is having a nice day at +1.57%. For comparison, the Dow is higher at +1.12%, the Nasdaq at +1.49%, and the S&P 500 at 1.04%. Praise God, We’ve got them covered today!

Dow jumps 500 points as rally accelerates Monday on the back of Apple: Live updates

Recent action has left us with the following signals: C-Buy, S-Buy, I-Buy, F-Buy. We are currently invested at 100/S. Our allocation is now +17.15% for the year not including the days results. Here are the latest posted results:

God bless, Scott 

***Just a reminder that you can review the performance of our allocation at the Web Site TSPTALK.com in the autotracker section under the screen name KyFan1.

I produce and publish this blog as both a ministry and for the benefit of any Federal Government Employee. This is done to offer you some guidance as to how to approach your retirement more financially successful. When it is time for you to retire, I recommend you utilize the services of a Professional Money Manager, who works with a reputable investment firm. He understands the guidance you have already received and he can manage your savings assets utilizing a more advanced investment program into the future.

If you would like to receive more information about this introduction, please feel free to contact me at  KyFan1@aol.com.