Leaders Index 4-3-25

It was a bloodbath today. The market didn’t like the tariffs and the selling was intense. The major averages opened lower and mostly sold off all day. All the major averages finished near their intraday trading lows. The losses were broad based with the COMPQ and the NDX falling 5.97% and 5.41% respectively. The SPX lost 4.84%. Volume was higher across the board. Leading stocks took a hit as well. The leaders index fell 10.1% as several components broke badly. The index closed low in its trading range on higher and above average volume. The market was hit hard as the tariffs were more than was expected. The major averages opened sharply lower and continued down into the close. The losses were large and the much higher volume showed that large institutional players were selling heavily. All the major averages moved to new lows and closed weak. The COMPQ is now more than 18% below the highs of last December. This puts the COMPQ very close to accepted bear market territory. The small cap stocks are already there. It look like we are now well into the second down leg of this bear market. It has happened very quickly as these type of moves usually don’t go almost straight down. Its hard to say what happens now. After a decline like this you often see a bounce, but I don’t know about that now. It’s possible there could be a short rally, but the bear market is far from over. The employment report comes out tomorrow. Hope for a market friendly number. Jerry