Leaders Index 11-6-19

The market put in an overall encouraging performance today. The major averages opened a bit lower and sold off further on news that a signing of the first stage trade deal with China would be delayed until December. The market quickly recovered and spent most of the remainder of the session working its way higher. The Nasd averages were the weakest with the COMPQ and the NDX showing declines of .29% and .17% respectively. The SPX was up slightly by .07%. All the major averages closed high in their intraday trading ranges, a good sign. Volume was very close to yesterday’s levels. It was higher by only 1.18% on the Nasd and .31% on the New York. This is so close that other data feeds could come out with a different result. As it stands this would be a distribution day on the Nasd averages. Leading stocks were mixed as well. The leaders index was flat with a decline of only .01%. It closed in about the middle of its trading range and volume was higher and well above average. The market acted pretty well today, all things considered. It pretty much shrugged off bad news on trade and closed near its highs. The charts of the major averages are still looking good and it looks like the market is consolidating recent gains in a pretty constructive manner. The picture in quality growth stocks is not as bright. The leaders index has been consolidating for weeks while the major averages make new highs. This can be seen in the weak action of the relative strength line. The index remains below its short term moving averages and the 50dma is catching up. The underperformance of quality growth stocks is the biggest negative right now, but it still looks like the market itself want to go higher. With few leading stocks producing real gains the index ETFs continue to look like a good alternative. Jerry