Leaders Index 9-3-14

The market opened strong today, mostly on news of a deal between Russia and Ukraine. The gains didn’t last as the major averages saw their highs in the first fifteen minutes of trading. In a reverse of yesterday’s action the Nasd averages were the weakest while the New York averages showed more strength. The COMPQ was off by .56% while the NDX lost .61%. Much of this was due to the decline in AAPL. The SPY was only down .08%. Volume was higher across the board so there was distribution on the COMPQ but the losses on the New York were to small to produce distribution.The averages all closed near their lows of the day. Leading stocks generally held up better than the overall market as the leaders index closed slightly higher with a gain of .09% on the session. The index closed in the upper half of it’s intraday range, but the day’s candle was red because the index closed below it’s opening. The index also tagged it’s short term 9dma but finished well above this support level. Even with today’s weakness the overall picture is still good. Both the leaders index and the major averages are above all their short term moving averages and the distribution count remains low. It is ok to have short bouts of weakness in a rally, as long as there are not to many of them. Jerry