Leaders Index 9-17-15

It was a wild day today. It started out pretty quiet as you would expect before the Fed announcement. The major averages strengthened going into the announcement and then spent the rest of the session whipsawing back and forth. There was a solid rally in the last hour that saw the major averages produce real gains, but by the close all those gains were gone. It looked like a reversal with all the major averages finishing at or near their intraday lows. The COMPQ held onto a small gain of .10% while the SPX fell .26%. Volume was higher across the board so there was a distribution day on the New York averages. There was no distribution on the Nasd averages as they held onto small gains. Leading stocks did better than the overall market with the leaders index gaining 1.33% on about flat volume. The index closed in about the middle of it’s intraday trading range, but it was enough for a new closing high. The relative strength line also is in new high ground. The COMPQ has been approaching it’s 200dma. I have been saying since the market broke down more than three weeks ago that the COMPQ could rally back and test this moving average. Today, at the high before the late selloff it broke through this level and even tagged it’s declining 50dma. It couldn’t hold these levels and closed back below both. This remains the test for the market. If the COMPQ can’t get back above the 200dma with some conviction the market can’t rally. The next few days will tell us a lot about where we are going. Jerry