Leaders Index 12-28-20

The market put in a mixed performance today. The major averages opened higher and the Nasd averages had some selling but recovered and the New York averages held on to the gains for the rest of the session. All the major averages made new highs and closed in the upper half of their intraday trading ranges. The gains were pretty evenly divided with the COMPQ and the NDX higher by .74% and 1.01% on the day. The SPX rallied .87%. There was weakness in recently strong sectors with the small and mid-cap stocks, along with the semiconductors falling. Volume was higher across the board, as you would expect on the day after a short preholiday session. Volume increased 77.73% on the New York and 51.38% on the Nasd. Leading stocks were weak today with the leaders index falling 1.49% on the day. The index closed near the lows of the session and it broke below its 9dma, although it held its 17dma. Volume was higher but below average. The market had a mixed session today with the major averages showing solid gains but that was accompanied by weakness in leading stocks. The leaders index sold off, along with the FFTY declining 1.75%. The weakness in quality growth stocks is a concern. They are showing some relative weakness as the major averages make new highs. This is always something to watch. There was also weakness in the small and mid-cap sectors that have outperformed in recent weeks. There are a lot of similarities between the current market and the one in 1999. They range from the hot IPO market to extreme valuations to the number of amateur traders jumping in on sites like Robin Hood. It certainly looks like we are in the late stages of a bull market. We don’t know how far it will go(1999 went on farther than I thought it would) so it could continue for a while longer. The leading stocks have underperformed for the last few days, but that is to short a time to draw any conclusions. I think we will continue to work our way higher through the end of the year. I am going to take a few days off so there will not be any updates for the rest of the week. I will however put up a year end update over the weekend. I hope everyone has a good new year. Jerry