Leaders Index 3-3-17

It was a fairly uneventful day in the markets yesterday. The major averages were weak early and sold off for a little over an hour. They then bottomed out and worked their way higher for the rest of the session. The COMPQ finished with a small advance of .16% while the SPX was up by .05%. All the major averages closed near their intraday trading highs, a sign of support. Volume was lower across the board so large institutional players were not heavily involved yesterday. Leading stocks had a generally better session than the overall market. The last leaders index was going on four months old, dating back to the election, and was getting old. Quite a few components had broken down and I had already modified it once. With the major averages at or near new high ground I decided that we would be best served by a new index that better represented the stocks that are leading now. The new index contains 23 stocks in 20 different industry groups. I think it is a good cross section of leading growth stocks and will give good warning when the market is going to roll over. The index was higher by 1.21% on lower and below average volume. The index is riding its 9dma higher and the relative strength line is very strong. The market is acting well right now and all the major averages are rising above their short term moving averages. The new leaders index is about as strong as any I have seen. We may well be ahead of ourselves on a very short term basis, but the market looks like it wants to go higher. Jerry