Leaders Index 2-22-24

The market staged a strong rally today on NVDA’s earnings report. The major averages opened higher and rallied pretty much the entire session. All the major averages finished near their intraday trading highs. The Nasd averages led the way due to strength in the big cap tech stocks, but the other major averages did well also. The COMPQ and the NDX rallied 2.96% and 3.01% respectively. The SPX gained 2.11%. Volume was higher across the board, showing that large institutional players were buying stocks. Leading stocks rallied as well with the leaders index gaining 2.69% on the day. The index closed high in its trading range on higher and above average volume. NVDA had a blow out report even by their standards. It lit the market on fire and created a strong rally. All the major averages made new highs today, with the exception of the COMPQ which is a fraction below. Things were looking a little sloppy before this and NVDA’s report could send the market moving in either direction. It set off a strong rally and could possibly push the rally further. Right now it looks like it could do that. Leading stocks that were looking sloppy did very well today and may correct one of the issues I was worried about. The bottom line is to decide if this is just a pop or the start of a new up leg in the rally. We can’t know that yet, but today was pretty good. I said yesterday that lightening up a bit was probably a good idea. I still think that is true. You want to be more careful late in a rally than you are early in a rally. Even if the market moves higher from here, it doesn’t hurt to take some partial profits on the way up. Jerry