Leaders Index 10-19-20

The market put in a poor performance today. After opening higher the major averages quickly sold off and declined into the close. All the major averages finished at or very near their intraday trading lows, a sign of weakness. The losses were pretty evenly divided with the COMPQ and the NDX falling 1.65% and 1.84% respectively. The SPX lost 1.63%. Volume was mixed. It was lower by 17.84% on the New York and higher by 12.49% on the Nasd. This, combined with the price declines produced a distribution day on the Nasd averages. Leading stocks held up better than the overall market with the leaders index off by only .10% on the session. The index closed low in its trading range and volume was light but a little higher than Friday. The index again held its short term 9dma at its lows. The action of the market today was not encouraging. There were early gains that didn’t hold and a decent sized decline followed. The Nasd averages produced a distribution day, but the New York averages avoided one. Leading stocks are holding up pretty well and the leaders index continues to hold its short term support. A break of this moving average would be the first sign of trouble in quality growth stocks. The worst of the decline came today on a news story throwing cold water on hopes for a stimulus package, The futures are higher at the time of this writing on hopes of more talks. This means much of today’s losses could be recovered tomorrow. The rally is still in effect, but it seems to be struggling. There was just a follow through on the COMPQ. After a follow through you want to see strong action to confirm the signal. We haven’t seen that kind of action since the signal. That is a cause for concern. The charts still look ok, but I am a little nervous. Jerry