Leaders Index 3-17-22

The market continued its recent positive action today. The major averages opened lower but quickly found a bottom and rallied most of the remainder of the session. All the major averages finished near their intraday trading highs as there was buying into the close. The gains were pretty evenly spread today with the COMPQ and the NDX gaining 1.33% and 1.16% respectively. The SPX rallied 1.23%. Volume was lower across the board. It fell 14.08% on the Nasd and 22.04% on the New York. Leading stocks had a good session as well. Since there was a follow through yesterday on the SPX I decided to create a new index. It has 21 stocks in 15 different industry groups. The contents of the index are new. There are no tech stocks and it is dominated by energy, shipping and metals and mining stocks. That is unusual for an index of growth stocks but that is where the leadership is right now. The index rose 1.73% on the day and is at a new high. Volume was slightly lower. The market continued to build on the upside action of the last couple of days. There was a follow through yesterday on the SPX that could signal a rally attempt. Right now it looks a little suspect but there are a couple of things that could improve the picture. The major averages are now getting close to their declining 50dma’s. A break above this resistance would be encouraging. The next item is the weekly Coppock. It has slowed its rate of decent with the latest price rally and is showing a curl. The indicator could give a buy signal next. That would be a good confirmation of the follow through and would greatly improve the chances that this will turn out to be a tradable rally in what is still a bear market. Jerry