Leaders Index 3-21-17

The market took a pretty good shot today. After opening higher it looked like the major averages would have another fairly quiet session with an upside bias. The Nasd averages even broke above their recent consolidations. There was then a reversal and all the major averages sold off hard into the close. The losses were significant with the COMPQ falling 1.82% while the SPX declined 1.24%. The greatest damage was done to the small cap and the semiconductor stocks. The RUT and the SOX declined 2.71% and 2.36% respectively. All the major averages closed at their intraday trading lows, showing little buying interest as prices fell. Volume was much higher across the board and above average on both exchanges. This means that large institutional players were selling stocks and added a new distribution day to all the major averages. Leading stocks were hard hit as well with the leaders index falling 3.32% on very heavy and above average volume. The index broke through both its 9dma and 17dma in what is the largest red candle on the chart. Much of today’s action was attributed to opposition to the new health care bill making it passage on Thursday less certain. Whatever the reason, real damage was done today to the overall market and leading stocks. It is possible that if a deal is worked out much of today’s trading could be recovered, but the kind of reversals we saw today are often seen near inflection points where trends can change. It is too early to tell yet, but the picture darkened a lot today. Jerry