Sorry if I’m being unclear. Here is what happened step by step.
On Thursday, 1/4, I sold $20K in another fund. Fidelity website reported that the sale went through at the closing price Thursday, and that my account had $20,000 cash available to trade,
I went ahead and placed orders to reinvest $10K each in two funds, PRCFX and FMSDX. I received an email from Fidelity acknowledging both orders on Friday morning. The Fidelity fund purchase settled without a hitch at the closing price on Friday, as expected. The trade for PRCFX was listed as “settlement pending” on Friday and throughout the weekend. Purchase did not occur until closing price on Monday, so I missed market gains I should have received if purchase had occurred on Friday.
My issue is that, in the past, if I bought shares in an NTF fund with available cash on a given day, my purchase price was the closing price on that day. Always. So I lost $62 in potential gains. Not a huge amount of money, but I’ve never had this happen before. I’ll talk to someone at Fidelity for clarification. I’m sure that in the fine print it says that transactions can sometimes take longer.

Facts as presented are unclear.
If a mutual fund order is entered BEFORE 4 PM Eastern market close (beware that some brokers may have earlier cutoffs, but none of the major ones do now), you will get the closing NAV of THAT day. BTW, I have successfully entered mutual fund orders as close as 3:58 PM or 3:59 PM at multiple sites, but that is cutting it too close - any network disruption or transmission issue can cause order failure.
Settlement is only when the funds are due for the trade (T+1 for mutual funds, T+2 for stocks/ETFs/CEFs). Prices/NAVs are never set on settlement dates. If that does happen, report to the SEC or FINRA.
In cash accounts, Fido, Schwab, etc don't allow order entry without settled cash in core/settlement account, but Vanguard does with a prominent warning on when funds are due. Margin accounts don't have this issue.

@Tarwheel,
Not sure I understand why you are focused on settlement date when you are buying. Your trade date determines your purchase price. If the settlement is T+2, instead of T+1, presumably Fidelity gives you an extra day of interest on your money that was used to settle the trade. I would speak with your Fidelity Rep about any perceived discrepancy.

@Derf.+1. I think Washington was out coached.

The settlement date for shares purchased on 12/8 was 12/11. Settlement date for shares purchased on 1/5 was 1/8. Both purchases occurred on a Friday, well before market closing. Both purchases did not settle until closing prices on Monday. In every transaction I can recall at Fidelity, if I purchased a fund before market closing, the settlement price was the closing price on the day of purchase.
In the long run, it’s no big deal. However, it’s irksome because the fund had a nice gain on Monday, which I missed. It should have been a rare instance in which a fund that I bought had a nice gain the first day after purchase. Usually I’m not so lucky, so I guess my bad luck is holding.
The bigger issue for me is that it seems to be another example of eroding customer service at TRP, assuming the problem was on their end. I have sold a number of TRP funds over the past year because of declining performance and this is another straw on the camel’s back.

Boeing is a component in the Dow Jones index and widely held in many funds.

Yes - First thing I did this morning was to look at my holdings for Boeing exposure. Appears to be minimal. I recall that after the 2 fatal crashes (2018 / 2019) there were actually some on the board buying Boeing stock as it fell. (@JohnN was one.) Wonder how that worked out?
As @Old_Joe noted earlier, there’s an excellent discussion of the 737-Max design & safety issues
ongoing in the “Off Topic” section.

FYI, I purchased shares in PRCFX 12/8/23 and 1/4/24 through Fidelity. Both transactions took 3-4 days to settle. I’ve never had a fund purchase take so long to settle since I’ve been doing transactions online. I plan …

So when were the settlement dates exactly

Truth! They are gambling with lives. No one can say it's a mix-up, like the Air Canada plane that ran out of gas and had to do an emergency landing at a retired military airstrip in Manitoba, which was by then being used for drag-racing at the time. Why? it was a mistake regarding the switch from Imperial gallons to liters as the new standard measurement. 40 years ago.
https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-a-metric-mix-up-led-to-the-gimli-glider-emergency-1.4754039

Both Fidelity and Vanguard require $1,000 minimum for IRA accounts. Quick transaction online.

FYI, I purchased shares in PRCFX 12/8/23 and 1/4/24 through Fidelity. Both transactions took 3-4 days to settle. I’ve never had a fund purchase take so long to settle since I’ve been doing transactions online. I plan to speak to someone at Fidelity about the reasons for this, as I missed at least one day of gains. I don’t know if the transaction would have been delayed so long if conducted at the TRP website, but I haven’t encountered such problems with other third party fund purchases at Fidelity. This is something that others might want to be aware of if considering this fund.

Glad you told us about that! Stinky, maybe even poopy, too. I do all my trades at TRP. They are "threatening" to put forward a website upgrade. Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! TRP fund entry minimums are $2,500.00. All others require an initial $5,000.00.

12/8/23 was Friday. T+1 settlement would be Monday, 12/11/23.
1/4/23 was Thursday. T+1 settlement would be Friday, 1/5/23.
This assuming that orders were in BEFORE 4 PM Eastern.
If AFTER 4 PM, then dates would be 12/12/23 and 1/8/23.

FYI, I purchased shares in PRCFX 12/8/23 and 1/4/24 through Fidelity. Both transactions took 3-4 days to settle. I’ve never had a fund purchase take so long to settle since I’ve been doing transactions online. I plan to speak to someone at Fidelity about the reasons for this, as I missed at least one day of gains. I don’t know if the transaction would have been delayed so long if conducted at the TRP website, but I haven’t encountered such problems with other third party fund purchases at Fidelity. This is something that others might want to be aware of if considering this fund.

SMH etf, VanEck, Semi Conductors, 26 holdings as of today, Jan. 8.
--- +73.4% in 2023 and it was down -5 last week, but strong again today at +3.5%, with other tech. advancing, too (Jan. 8)
I/we prefer 10% of the portfolio for a holding to be meaningful for either the positive or negative affect. Perhaps some dollar cost averaging, in 2% chunks. Magic 8 Ball is awaiting parts. But I can make hand drawn dart board.
So many have to have the chips and their related vendors, eh?
Gonna watch a football game first with a game snack of Michigan 'Jiffy Mix' corn bread. :)

Ticker	Holding Name	% of Net Assets	 
NVDA US	Nvidia Corp	20.35
TSM US	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co 	9.12	
AVGO US	Broadcom Inc	6.02	
AMD US	Advanced Micro Devices Inc	5.59	
INTC US	Intel Corp	5.36	
ASML US	Asml Holding Nv	4.79	
TXN US	Texas Instruments Inc	4.49	
LRCX US	Lam Research Corp	4.47	
QCOM US	Qualcomm Inc	4.46	
ADI US	Analog Devices Inc	4.38	
AMAT US	Applied Materials Inc	4.37	
MU US	Micron Technology Inc	4.02	
SNPS US	Synopsys Inc	3.62	
KLAC US	Kla Corp	3.55	
CDNS US	Cadence Design Systems Inc	3.21	
NXPI US	Nxp Semiconductors Nv	2.23	
MCHP US	Microchip Technology Inc	2.10	
MRVL US	Marvell Technology Inc	1.91	
STM US	Stmicroelectronics Nv	1.38	
ON US	On Semiconductor Corp	1.26	
MPWR US	Monolithic Power Systems Inc	1.08	
SWKS US	Skyworks Solutions Inc	0.77	
TER US	Teradyne Inc	0.62	
QRVO US	Qorvo Inc	0.46	
OLED US	Universal Display Corp	0.38	
USD CASH-		-0.01		-
Other/Cash	0.04	--

+1.

The Year in Charts (01/07/24)
These were the charts and themes that told the story of 2023...
00:00 Intro
00:15 The Wall of Worry
02:55 The Pain Trade
04:35 A Run on the Bank
09:36 A Different Kind of Fed
14:06 AI Exuberance
18:03 The Magnificent Seven
20:19 The Sky's the Limit
23:38 The Recession that Never Came
26:38 The Earnings Comeback
28:18 A Frozen Housing Market
32:20 Back on the Path to Prosperity
36:32 A Rally for the Ages
42:18 The Polar Opposite of 2022
45:06 Triumph of the Optimists
49:41 What Comes Next?
Video
Blog

It's certainly the case that there was other language that he might have chosen to make the same point: "I will not panic or abandon the discipline when times get tough and markets turn against us. I haven't, and won't. I am hopeful that you won't either." That said, I suppose there would be considerable tension in hiding who we are in a discussion of, well, who we are.
I cited Cathie Wood as a comp in part because there's an overlap in investing style and, in part, because there's an overlap in personal conviction. (You know: fund company named after the Ark of the Covenant and all.) Her faith seems not to have hinder asset gathering ($16 billion at the moment) or predicted performance (down 67% in '22, up 67% in '23). Her investing style does not align with mine; if it did, that would be enough for me to take her more seriously.
For what that's worth, David

Not all investors will hold to maturity; not all notes and bonds mature at the same time within that year; and then there are the potential defaults (corporates of course). The portfolio would need to continue buying additional corporate notes/bonds, perhaps at lower rates.
Consider just two investors and a single CUSIP. Investor 1 buys in now, investor 2 in a year.
We'll start off as simple as possible. Let's say the current market rate on a 3 year Treasury is 4%, and the underlying Treasury bonds, maturing in 3 years have 4% coupons. So they trade at par. Let's also say that the ETF shares are $100/share.
Investor 1 comes in an invests $10,000. That's 100 shares, buying 10 bonds at par in the underlying portfolio.
A year goes by. We'll assume that the yield at that moment on 2 year treasuries is 3.5%. Shorter term bonds typically have lower yields, or perhaps all rates dropped over that year. The reason doesn't really matter.
A two year bond with a 4% coupon and a YTM of 3.5% is priced at 100.9577. You can find that with a calculator, e.g. Fidelity's, and you can verify it with EXCEL:
EXCEL function: YIELD(DATE(2024,1,1), DATE(2026,1,1), 4%, 100.9577, 100, 2)
Because the underlying bonds have appreciated from 100 to 100.9577, the share price has likewise appreciated from $100 to $100.9577.
Investor 2 comes in and buys 100 shares for $10,095.77. Keep in mind that the YTM at the time is 3.5%. Now each investor owns 100 shares.
At maturity, Investor 1 has received three years worth of coupons at a rate of 4% and gets back the original $10,000 investment when the bonds mature and the fund is liquidated. That's your basic 4% yield. The fact that Investor 2 bought additional shares at a higher price (lower yield) had no effect.
At maturity, Investor 2 has received two years worth of coupons at a rate of 4%, but gets back $95.77 less than the original investment. That's because the investor bought the bonds at a premium.
The YTM that Investor 2 received was 3.5% - just what the market rate on two year bonds was when the investment was made. See the EXCEL expression above. In short, having to buy or sell bonds shouldn't affect the fund's behavior. That's unlike "normal" Treasury bond funds where trading can alter the portfolio's average maturity. (In corporate bond funds, trading can also affect credit quality and risk.)
The fact that the bonds mature over a period of a year can somewhat reduce yield. In that last year, as bonds mature their proceeds are held as cash (think 3 mo Treasuries) which should yield somewhat less than 12 mo Treasuries. Or as the prospectus puts it:

Declining Yield Risk. During the six months prior to the Fund’s planned termination date, the Fund’s yield will generally tend to move toward prevailing money market rates and may be lower than the yields of the bonds previously held by the Fund and lower than prevailing yields for bonds in the market.

Hey @Old_Joe - I’ve been interested in laddering their cousins, the ishares ibonds (IBDQ - 2yr and IBDR - 3yr) term maturity bond etfs, and as a full disclaimer, I’m a novice when it comes to these etfs and individual bills, notes, and bonds. The etfs I’ve been curious about are corporates. I find buying individual treasuries (3, 6, 12 months) at Vanguard effortless without a markup fee or ER.
The defined-maturity etfs quote their yield, just as individual bonds; so knowing the predicted income in advance, is intriguing, until I understood from other investor experiences, that they cannot guarantee the exact yield publicized, at maturity. Not all investors will hold to maturity; not all notes and bonds mature at the same time within that year; and then there are the potential defaults (corporates of course). The portfolio would need to continue buying additional corporate notes/bonds, perhaps at lower rates.
“Cost” and “Control” have become more important to me (and perhaps you) given our 2021-22 bond fund experience. This is why I’ve been laddering t-bills at auction. I know what I’m getting at maturity. Even if the total return “might” be greater in a bond fund when short term rates are cut by the Fed. I’m not interested in a cracker jacks box surprise toy (we folks of a certain age will remember). Still, I’m invested in VWIAX so the longer bonds should help when rates come down.
So all in all, I’m more interested in these DM etfs than bond funds, and still tempted. Mean while I’ve taken an interest in individual Agency bonds and will also look to slowly invest in longer individual treasuries.

I have to say that if (at this time) over 140 of you have looked at this post and only one of you has been able to help, then I don't feel nearly as stupid as I did when I asked for help on this.