Leaders Index 11-30-21

The market fell hard today after getting hit with a double barreled shot. The CEO of Moderna said that their vaccine may not be as effective against the new variant. The market opened lower but tried to rally when the second barrel went off. Powell said that the Fed may taper sooner and that inflation may not be as transitory as they thought. The selling began and continued into the close. All the major averages finished near their intraday trading lows. The COMPQ and the NDX fell 1.55% and 1.81% respectively. The SPX declined 1.91%. Volume increased across the board, and by a lot. It rose 22.51% on the Nasd and 18.98% on the New York. This produced a new distribution day on all the major averages and showed that large institutional players were selling stocks heavily today. Leading stocks took it on the chin as well with the leaders index falling 3.75% on the day. The index closed low in its trading range and volume was extremely high. The market got hit hard again today and right now the rally is in serious trouble. The big declines on very heavy volume showed institutional selling and the distribution count is now pretty high on the New York averages. The charts of both the major averages and the leaders index look pretty bad and there is a lot of distribution under the surface in individual stocks. The market advance has been getting narrower and narrower, which is a sign of a late stage rally. The advance decline lines of both exchanges are looking ugly as most stocks have already begun to decline. Good news on the new variant could cause a rally, but at this point I would be skeptical. Protecting gains is the most important concern right now. Jerry