Leaders Index 11-18-16

The market took a breather on Friday as the major averages finished mostly lower. After some early strength they started to sell off and worked their way lower the rest of the session. The major averages closed with fairly minor losses that are not out of line with the recent advance. The COMPQ declined .23% while the SPX fell .24%. Both closed at the bottom of their intraday trading range, a sign of lack of support. Volume was lower on the Nasd. On the New York IBD called it slightly lower while esignal showed it higher. You can believe who you want, but according to esignal there was distribution on the SPX. The real strength was in the small cap and semiconductor stocks with the RUT and SOX gaining .47% and .67% respectively. Leading stocks were moderately higher as well with the leaders index gaining .26% on lower but still above average volume. The index made a new high on both an intraday and a closing basis. The relative strength line of the index also went into new high ground. The fact that leading stocks are outperforming the overall market is a good sign. The market is holding on to the gains it has made since the election pretty well. You would expect some sort of at least mild pullback, but so far there really hasn’t been one. This is a tough market to make any progress in, but there are a few opportunities. We saw a little bit of a reversal of leadership last week as tech stocks started to outperform. We will have to watch the action next week to see if this continues. Next week could be fairly quiet as it is Thanksgiving week, but in this current environment almost anything could happen. Jerry