Leaders Index 12-3-13

The market opened lower today and stayed in negative territory the whole session. A late rally took the major averages off their lows and they closed in the upper half of their trading ranges. The NYA lead the way lower with a loss of .50% while the COMPQ was off .20%. Volume was higher across the board so there was distribution, although IBD said that the COMPQ was down slightly less than .20% so there was no distribution on this average. Leading stocks did better than the overall market as the leaders index rose .17% on higher on higher but still below average volume. The index tagged it’s important 17dma today and is holding above this rising moving average. The leaders have outperformed the major averages for the last couple of days, and this is encouraging. But the lack of many attractive stocks in buyable positions and not much in the way of meaningful gains is worrisome. We are in a difficult market right now so a good deal of cash is probably a prudent move. Jerry