Leaders Index 7-17-14

The market really got pasted today. After a weak opening the market continued to sell off. News of the shoot down of the passenger jet over Ukraine and the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza really got the selling going and all the major averages finished near the bottom of their intraday ranges. It was the worst one day decline in months as the COMPQ fell 1.41% while the SPY was lower by 1.18%. Volume was mixed, down fractionally on the New York and up a lot on the Nasd. This produced a distribution day. The decline also saw four sell signals on the MEM, bring the score down to two. Leading stocks got hit as well with the leaders index off by 2.00%. Volume was mild and both lower than yesterday and well below average. The lack of volume is a good sign, but the index fell back below it’s important 17dma which is a real sign of weakness. Today’s action shows how well the canslim discipline works. Recent action took us out of most or all of our positions before this decline really got started. Where we go from here is hard to say but recent action in both the major averages and quality growth stocks is not a reason for optimism. Jerry