Leaders Index 7-10-17

The market put in a bit of a mixed session today. After opening slightly weaker the major averages rallied most of the rest of the day until a little late selling saw them close off their intraday trading highs. The COMPQ finished with a gain of .38% while the SPX was about flat by closing .09% higher. The greatest strength was in the semiconductor stocks with the SOX rallying 1.16%. All the major averages closed in the upper half of their intraday trading ranges, a good sign. Volume was mixed, higher on the New York a slightly lower on the Nasd. You would have liked to see higher volume on the Nasd as that is where the strength was today. Leading stocks were generally higher as the leaders index was higher by .45%. The index is above all its short term moving averages and closed near the top of its trading range. Volume was lower than Friday and below average. The tech stocks were the leaders today and some stocks showed nice advances. The COMPQ as well as the SOX have now regained their important 50dma’s, a good sign and something that must happen to improve the picture. The follow through today to Friday’s rally was frankly not that impressive. The New York averages were pretty much flat and the Nasd averages advanced nicely, but there was little volume behind the move. It is difficult to sustain an advance without large institutional players becoming active buyers. It will take some solid up sessions with real volume behind them to tell me that an up move has legs. Until that happens I will remain cautious. Jerry