Leaders Index 4-8-15

The market opened stronger today and after achieving some decent gains it traded back and forth until some late strength allowed all the major averages to finish near their intraday highs. The Nasd averages led the way with the COMPQ higher by .83% and the NDX up by .73%. The New York averages struggled and the SPX brought up the rear with a gain of .27%. Volume was higher across the board so there was accumulation on all the major averages. Leading stocks had an overall good session as the leaders index rose 1.37% on higher but below average volume. The index showed a little late weakness and closed in about the middle of it’s intraday range but it was still a good up day. The 9dma came back above the 17dma, which gave support to the index during the recent weakness. The relative strength line of the index made a new high today. This showed that quality growth stocks are outperforming the overall market, a positive sign. Markets usually don’t get into too much trouble when leading stocks are doing better than the major averages, but we are still in a trendless market that is difficult to make progress in. It is a good idea to keep expectations modest. Jerry