Leaders Index 4-5-16

The market sold off today from the open. The major averages followed European markets and declined from the start and worked their way down for the rest of the session. All the major averages finished at or near their intraday trading lows, a sign of little support late in the day. The COMPQ fell .98% on the day while the SPX was off by 1.01%. The selling was across the spectrum as the small and mid cap stocks declined about in line with the larger stock averages. Volume was higher across the board, so large institutional players were selling stocks. This produced a distribution day on all the major averages, the fifth for the COMPQ and the third for the SPX. This is starting to get to a worrisome level, especially on the COMPQ. Leading stocks were lower as well, but held up better than the overall market. The leaders index fell .39% on lower and below average volume. The index closed in the lower half of it’s intraday range and below it’s short term 9dma. It again tagged it’s important 17dma and has now done this for three days in a row. A break of this important support would be very negative. The rally remains intact, but is showing some signs of being tired. The number of distribution days is close to levels that would indicate trouble and secondary indicators like the A’s minus E’s and the Summation index have already turned down. The COMPQ and the NYA both retook their 200dma’s in the last few days and have now broken back below this moving average. It won’t take many more days like today to really darken the picture. Jerry