Leaders Index 3-7-16

It was overall a quiet but generally constructive session today. The major averages opened lower but rallied to decent gains before selling off and then closing with a little strength. The Nasd averages were a bit lower due to weakness in a few mega cap tech stocks but the COMPQ managed to cut earlier losses and close in the upper half of it’s intraday trading range. It finished with a decline of .19%. The New York stocks were stronger but still had modest gains. The SPX was higher by .09% on the day. Volume was lower across the board, which is not a bad thing when the market is consolidating recent gains. Leading stocks were generally a little weaker today with the leaders index falling .53% on the day and closing in about the middle of it’s intraday range. Volume was lower than Friday and well below average. The index has flattened out over the last few days. It traded below it’s short term 9dma but finished the session just above this moving average. It is pretty common for both stocks and averages to consolidate after an advance to allow the moving averages to catch up. The real strength today was in the small and mid cap stocks, with the RUT and MID climbing 1.13% and .45% respectively. The SOX has also regained it’s 200dma. Despite the generally positive action in the major averages there are still not many quality growth stocks that are well set up. That shows that there is not a lot of strength in the current rally. I have said before that this is more of a struggling rally than a strong rally and expectations should be modest. I have some exposure but it is mostly in index ETFs. Jerry