Leaders Index 1-21-20

The market put in an overall solid performance today. There was a little selling at the open, but the major averages soon rallied to modest gains. A little after ten( Pacific time) the market started selling off. The trial in the Senate began and the first case of the new coronavirus was reported in the U. S. There was some back and forth and the major averages closed with modest losses. The COMPQ and the NDX fell .19% and .07% respectively. The SPX declined .27%. All the major averages closed in the lower half of their intraday trading ranges, due to late selling. Volume was higher across the board. It was up by 8.06% on the New York and 4.84% on the Nasd. The price decline on the SPX combined with the higher volume was enough to produce a distribution day on the SPX. The decline in the Nasd averages were too small to qualify as distribution. Leading stocks did a little better than the overall market. The leaders index gained a modest .07% on the day. It closed in the upper half of its trading range and volume was lower than Friday. It also remains above its short term 9dma. The market did pretty well today, even though it was slightly lower. There were a couple of events that could have caused a larger sell off but didn’t. It looked like there might be some gains and while the news took away the gains the losses were small. It would have been better if volume was lower, but that is just one item. Overall the action of the market remains encouraging. Jerry