Leaders Index 8-5

It was a wild day yesterday as the major averages whip sawed back all day. The Dow closed up but all the other major averages sold off. The market internals were very weak. We closed off the lows of the day in about the middle of the trading range which showed a bit of support. Volume was the highest in over a year. Weather that was real buying or PPT action is hard to tell. The NYA, the weakest of the major averages is down more than 15% from it's highs and so is approaching bear market territory. The leaders got hit hard again with the leaders index dropping 2.07% on huge volume. The index tagged it's 200dma before recovering latter in the day. Last night S&P downgraded U. S. government debt. This was hardly unexpected but could still have significant effect on the markets next week. It could be a non event as it was expected or maybe it will be the grain if sand that starts the avalanche. Whatever happens, we do not have a boring week ahead of us. Jerry