Leaders Index 11-22-19

The market was up slightly in light trading today. After opening higher the major averages sold off and then recovered much of the decline and finished with small gains. The New York averages were a little stronger with the SPX higher by .22% while the COMPQ and the NDX gained .16% and .07% respectively. All the major averages closed high in their intraday trading ranges, a sign of support. Volume was lower across the board. It fell 16.95% on the New York and 7.76% on the Nasd. Leading stocks were generally lower again today. The leaders index was off by 1.44% on the day and the FFTY fell .26%. Much of the decline in the leaders index was due to a further 10.96% decline in INMD, but there were several other components of the index showing losses. The leaders index closed in the lower half of its trading range and volume was lower and below average. The index moved further below its 9dma and tagged its 17dma. The market held up pretty well today and recovered most of the losses after an early decline. The overall market is still acting alright and the charts of the major averages look solid. There is some internal weakness as there is real distribution under the surface. The real concern is coming from the very recent weakness in leading stocks. They were underperforming the overall market for a while and had recently begun to outperform. That seems to have changed in the last three days. The leaders index was on a very nice run above all its short term moving averages until Wednesday. There have now been three days of declines and the relative strength line of the index has turned down. The 9dma has been breached and now the next real test will be the 17dma. If this moving average support is broken the overall picture will become more dicey. I will be away most of next week so there will be no updates. They will resume next Monday. I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving. Jerry