Equity funds posted largest gains

The Lifestyle Funds may invest in up to four sectors of the investment markets:
U.S. equity (stocks), international equity (foreign stocks), fixed income and
short-term fixed income. The Lifestyle Funds do this by investing in various
underlying funds that, in turn, buy stocks, bonds and other securities in these
market sectors. (Other than the Nuveen Dividend Value Fund and the Nuveen
International Growth Fund, all funds mentioned below are TIAA-CREF Funds.)
For the six months, the domestic and international equity sectors both
recorded strong results that contributed most to the funds’ absolute returns—
that is, without regard to performance relative to their respective composite
benchmarks. Within the U.S. equity category, the Quant Small-Cap Equity Fund,
the Quant Small/Mid-Cap Equity Fund and the Large-Cap Growth Fund performed
best. Among foreign stock funds, the Emerging Markets Equity Fund posted a
sizable double-digit gain, followed by the International Opportunities Fund.
Within fixed income, the Core Plus Bond Fund produced a solid return. (All fund
returns are for the Institutional Class.)

U.S. bond and international stock funds benefited relative performance

All of the Lifestyle Funds outperformed their respective composite benchmarks,
primarily due to the relative strength of underlying funds investing in fixed
income and international equities.
In the fixed-income sector, the Core Plus Bond Fund was a substantial
contributor to the relative performance of all Lifestyle Funds except the Lifestyle
Aggressive Growth Fund, which has a target allocation of 100% equities. The
Short-Term Bond Fund and the Core Bond Fund also benefited the performance
of the Lifestyle Income Fund and the Lifestyle Conservative Fund.
In the foreign stock category, the International Equity Fund contributed most
to the Lifestyle Funds’ relative performance, followed by the International
Opportunities Fund and the Emerging Markets Equity Fund. However, these
positive effects were partly offset by the relative underperformance of the Quant
International Equity Fund, the Quant International Small-Cap Equity Fund and the
Nuveen International Growth Fund.
Within U.S. equities, the Growth & Income Fund was the largest contributor
to relative performance across all Lifestyle Funds. The Large-Cap Value Fund
and the Large-Cap Growth Fund also enhanced the Funds’ relative performance.
In contrast, the Nuveen Dividend Value Fund and the Quant Large-Cap Growth
Fund detracted most from the relative performance of all Lifestyle Funds.
(Performance of the Lifestyle Funds’ underlying TIAA-CREF Funds can be found
at TIAA.org/performance.)

TIAA-CREF Lifestyle Funds 2020 Semiannual Report 15