Leaders Index 4-10-23

The market had a sideways to slightly negative time last week. Today the major averages opened lower and quickly made a bottom for the day. The major averages then mostly worked their way higher the rest of the session and closed little changed. All finished high in their intraday trading ranges. Volume was mixed. It was higher on the Nasd and lower on the New York. The Nasd averages avoided distribution because the declines were to small to qualify. Leading stocks outperformed the overall market with the leaders index gaining 1.86% on the day. The index closed high in its trading range and held the 17dma at the lows. It closed above its short term 9dma as well. The market acted pretty well today as it recovered early losses and closed high in its trading range. It is holding up pretty well but not really getting anywhere. Lows are being held but real progress is not being made. We are in a rally right now but it is certainly not strong and the gains are concentrated in a small number of mostly big cap tech stocks. I think we are still in a bottoming process and in a transition from a bear to a bull market. Right now it doesn’t seem like the market is ready to start a serious move higher and we will likely see a lot of sideways up and down trading until it is ready. We can’t tell exactly when that will be, but a little weakness leading to a follow through that is well confirmed might be in our future, and that would be good. I am convinced that there will be a substantial move higher, but we may have to wait a little bit for it. Jerry