Leaders Index 12-6-22

The market took another hit today. The major averages opened lower and worked their way down most of the day. All the major averages finished near their intraday trading lows. The COMPQ and the NDX fell 2.00% and 2.01% respectively. The SPX declined 1.44%. Volume was higher across the board, adding a distribution day to all the major averages. Leading stocks were lower as well with the leaders index falling 2.40% on the session. The index closed low in its trading range on lower and below average volume. The market sold off again today on higher volume. This shows that large institutional players were selling stocks today. There was fresh distribution, but the overall count remains modest. Today’s action pretty much wiped out the gains from last week, showing weakness. Several technical points have been broken in the charts of the major averages and the SPX has a down trend line going back to the beginning of the bear market in January. It seems to have been turned back again. There have been some positive signals recently and that makes the current action more difficult to explain. The market makes some short gains and mostly just gives them back. It is very difficult to make any real progress right now and trying to hard can be costly. There is usually positive year end action in the markets, but it may not come this year. Right now a sizable cash position is a good idea. Jerry