Leaders Index 3-17-17

The market had another pretty much flat session yesterday. The New York averages were close to unchanged most of the day while the Nasd averages had some early modest gains but couldn’t hold them. The COMPQ finished with a small gain that worked out to exactly 0.0% while the SPX fell .13%. The SPX closed at the bottom of its trading range while the COMPQ finished in the lower half of its trading range. Volume increased dramatically on both exchanges, although this was as a result of Friday being an expiration day. This was enough to produce a stalling day on the COMPQ. Leading stocks were generally modestly higher as well with the leaders index rising .88% and closing high in its intraday trading range. The index made new highs on both a closing and an intraday basis, but it was by a fraction in each case. Volume on the index spiked, just like the overall market, due to yesterday being an expiration day. The relative strength line is just below the high it made a week ago. The market continues to consolidate on both the leaders index and the major averages. There is little damage in the charts and so far it looks more like a rest to allow important moving averages to catch up than any kind of even short term top. A couple of short to intermediate term items I look at, the A’s minus E’s and the Summation Index, are close to turning back up. So far the market is still looking ok and as of now it looks more likely that this will be resolved to the upside. Jerry