Leaders Index 3-13-18

The market started out today with solid gains and it looked like the upside would continue. The major averages opened higher, but less than a half hour into trading the selling came in and the market turned down and the selling continued for the rest of the session. The Nasd averages were the weakest today with the COMPQ losing 1.02% and the NDX lower by 1.19%. The SPX was down by .64%. All the major averages finished at their intraday trading lows, a sign that there was selling throughout the day. Volume was mixed, higher on the Nasd and lower on the New York, according to signal. This was enough to produce a fresh distribution day on the Nasd averages. Leading stocks were lower as well. The tech stocks generally took the worst of it and the leaders index was lower by .97% on the day. The index closed in the lower half of its trading range, but off its intraday lows. Volume on the leaders index was lower than yesterday and below average, so there was no distribution in quality growth stocks. Today’s action was negative as you do not want to see the kind of reversals we had today. The damage was generally pretty limited as the charts still look ok. The New York averages are showing the greatest weakness as the DOW and the NYA are both below their respective 50dma still resistance levels. The short term trend still appears to be higher, but this type of action tells you not to get to aggressive. There was more news out of Washington about the firing of Tillerson and some other reshuffling, and this may have caused some of the selling, despite a an overall positive inflation report. The same thing happened last week when Cohen resigned and the same may well happen again. At this point it still looks like the market wants to go higher, but even if it does it is not likely to be a smooth ride. Jerry