Leaders Index 4-2-19

The market did a pretty good job today of holding on to the gains it made in the last couple of sessions. The major averages opened close to unchanged but had a slightly positive bias for the rest of the day. The Nasd averages were the strongest with the COMPQ and the NDX higher by .25% and .28% respectively. The SPX was flat. The Nasd averages closed at the top of their intraday trading ranges while the New York averages finished in the upper half of their trading ranges. Volume was lower across the board, a good sign when the market is consolidating gains. Leading stocks did a little better than the overall market with the leaders index gaining 1.06% on the day. The lows of the day were above all the short term moving averages and the index finished near the top of its trading range. Volume was lower and well below average. Today’s action was positive. After a few days of solid gains some sort of consolidation or pull back is to be expected. The major averages held their gains and even built on them a little. The Nasd averages were a little higher than the highs of a week and a half ago when the weakness started and the New York averages are just below their near term highs. There has been a good deal of accumulation under the surface in the last few days and both the A’s minus E’s and the Summation Index are headed higher. The market looks like it wants to make a run for the all-time highs of late last year. If it breaks above those highs with conviction then we are in a bull market. If not there will likely be a double top that would point to a bear market. We will let the market tell us which it will be. Jerry