Leaders Index 10-27-14

It was a fairly quiet day overall. After some early weakness the major averages bottomed out in the first 40 minutes of trading and quickly regained the decline. They then spent the rest of the session going sideways. The COMPQ finished in slight positive territory with a gain of .05% while the SPY closed down .15%. Volume was mixed, lower on the Nasd and slightly higher on the New York. There was no distribution today on the New York averages as the decline in the SPY was less than the .20% threshold and the Dow was up a bit. All the major averages finished at their intraday highs, a sign of strength. Leading stocks were overall about flat on the day as well. The leaders index was off by .06% on lower and about average volume. The index has spent the last few days consolidating the run up off the bottom in a pretty constructive manor. It also closed near it’s intraday high. There were several fresh breakouts and some recent breakouts, like ALXN and ILMN, rallied into new high ground. The thing to watch now is the 50dma on the major averages. The COMPQ is just above this important moving average while the SPY is just below it. They both must clear this resistance level with some real conviction to improve the picture. If they can’t the rally will likely fail. Jerry