Leaders Index 3-24-14

After some pretty negative action late last week the market continued lower today. The action mirrored Friday’s with the major averages opening strong and ending weak. After a solid open there was a sell off that took the major averages to significant losses. A late rally brought the market off it’s lows but there were still real losses, especially the Nasd averages. The COMPQ led the way down by declining 1.18% while the SPY fell .49%. Volume was lower across the board, but this was due to the quadruple witching on Friday. The COMPQ tagged it’s 50dma today but closed slightly above it while the NDX finished a bit below this important moving average. The greatest damage was again done to leading stocks. The leaders index lost 2.48% on extremely heavy volume. We have now has two big red candles in a row on very heavy volume. This is very negative action as the index now has a pattern of lower highs and lower lows. It also almost tagged it’s 50dma. Considerable damage has been done in the last few days, and if the rally isn’t over it sure is close. This has happened many times in the last year and things may turn around again and return to new highs, but a defensive posture is clearly warranted. Jerry