Leaders Index 12-18-20

The market had a fairly mild sell off yesterday. After opening a little higher the major averages worked their way lower for most of the remainder of the session. A spurt of buying in the last fifteen or twenty minutes of trading caused the major averages to finish in the upper half of their intraday trading ranges. The declines in the Nasd averages were small with the COMPQ and the NDX losing only .07% and .11% respectively. The SPX was off by .35%. Volume was higher across the board. It was up by 19.12% on the New York and 5.58% on the Nasd. It was an expiration day so that may account for most of the volume increase. This was enough to produce a new distribution day on the New York averages while the decline in the Nasd averages was to small to qualify as distribution. Leading stocks gained some ground on the day with the leaders index higher by 1.08% on the day. The index closed low in its trading range on higher but still below average volume. The market took a break yesterday after its recent advance. It spent most of the day in negative territory and had some real losses until the last fifteen or twenty minutes of trading when buying came in and mitigated the declines. There was distribution on the New York averages but the overall count remains moderate. The action of the market wasn’t to bad yesterday because of the late buying coming. It is always a little suspicious when that much buying comes in at the end of the day but the result was only a moderate decline that didn’t do much damage. I continue to think the market will work its way higher through the end of the year. After that we will have to see. Jerry