Leaders Index 6-22-18

Overall yesterday’s session would have to be considered negative. After opening a bit higher the major averages saw their highs of the day early and went mostly sideways for most of the session before some late selling came in. All the major and secondary averages closed at or near their intraday trading lows, showing that there was little buying interest. The New York averages were the strongest with the SPX gaining .19% while the COMPQ fell .26%. Volume spiked higher across the board due to a Russell rebalancing driving trading. This was enough to produce a fresh distribution day on the Nasd averages. The New York averages were higher on rising volume, but closed almost at the bottom of their trading ranges in what looked like stalling action. Leading stocks had a negative session as well as many quality growth stocks sold off. The leaders index held up pretty well with the index declining only .14%. The index traded below its important 17dma on the day but rallied back to close just above its short term 9dma support level. It also finished high in its trading range. Volume was higher, due to the rebalancing, but the decline was too small to count as distribution. The market is acting a little sketchy in the last few days. Leading stocks have been selling off and high quality stocks like GRUB and DBX have come back and retraced all the way back to their standard pivot points. This is not what you want to see. The charts of the leaders index and the Nasd averages are still looking good, but the charts of the New York averages are not. The best thing the market had going for it was the good performance of quality growth stocks and successful breakouts. That has started to falter a bit in the last few days. There has not been enough damage done yet to really turn the overall picture negative, but if it continues it will present a greater problem. Jerry