Leaders Index 3-4-19

The market suffered a nasty reversal today. After opening higher, mostly on reports that a trade deal with China was close, the major averages reversed and sold off hard. The major averages bottomed out about half way through the session and rallied for the remainder of the day. The major averages finished slightly above the midpoint of its intraday trading range. The Nasd averages did a little better with the COMPQ off by .22% while the NDX was flat with a .01% loss. The SPX declined .39%. Volume was mixed, slightly lower on the New York but higher on the Nasd. This was enough to produce a fresh distribution day on the Nasd averages. Leading stocks were hit pretty hard with the leaders index falling 2.98% on the day. The index closed right on its short term 9dma and volume was higher and above average. This shows that quality growth stocks were under heavy selling. The action of the market was negative today. The fact that the major averages recovered a good chunk of their losses is good, but the overall action was the first really negative session in a while. There was a lot of selling in leading stocks, although both the leaders index and the major averages held important support. There was higher volume on the Nasd, producing a distribution day there and a lot of leading stocks had big losses. One bad day does not change the overall trend, but there are some yellow flags out there and some caution is warranted. Jerry