Leaders Index 8-20-19

The market sold off today in a fairly mild manner. The major averages opened lower and after a short rally attempt sold off into the close. All the major averages finished at their intraday trading lows, a sign of weakness. The New York averages were a little weaker with the SPX losing .79% while the COMPQ and the NDX fell .66% and .71% respectively. Volume was lower across the board, declining 8.78% on the Nasd and 4.28% on the New York. Leading stocks held up better than the overall market. The leaders index was higher by .15% on the session. It closed about in the middle of its trading range and volume was lower and well below average. The index continues to rise above its short term 9dma while its relative strength line is at new highs. The market gave back some of the gains of the last couple of days, but not that much. The fact that is came on lower volume was also good. A couple of other good items are the fact that the Summation Index and the A’s minus E’s have turned up in the last couple of days. These, along with the relatively outperformance of quality growth stocks, are the positives. The negatives are the pretty poor performance of the market since the follow through last week. The price and volume action has been poor and while few stocks are making really good gains. The chart of the leaders index is looking good, but it is a relatively new index. The charts of the major averages don’t look as good. They are still struggling with their 50dma. They must overcome this resistance with volume for the market to go anywhere. Jerry