Leaders Index 12-21-17

The market opened with solid gains and worked its way higher for a little over half the session. It then sold off into the close and lost most of the gains. The COMPQ finished with a gain of .06% while the SPX added .20%. All the major averages closed at the bottom of their intraday trading ranges, showing that selling came in as prices rose. Volume was extremely close on both exchanges. In a situation like this different data feeds can produce different results. Higher volume combined with the day’s price action would produce a stalling day on both exchanges. Whether or not this turns out to be an actual stalling day or not, it is certainly stalling type action. Leading stocks were mostly weaker today with the leaders index falling .47% on the day and closing near their lows of the session. Volume was lower and extremely low overall, as it has been all week. This is not unusual as many market participants have likely already left for the holiday. The index is sitting right on its 50dma and its 17dma. If it breaks these support levels it will be a very negative sign. The market acted a little hinky today. Opening strong and closing weak is a sign of a market that wants to go lower. It has done this several times now in the last week or two. There are a lot of cross signals right now. Seasonally the market usually rallies during the holidays, and that could still happen. Right now the overall market seems to be struggling a bit while quality growth stocks are underperforming. Frankly I think things could go either way at this point as I expected a little more positive action into year end. We will see in the coming days and weeks how things play out. Jerry