Leaders Index 5-20-19

The market put in a pretty negative session today. After gapping lower at the open the major averages tried to stage a rally, but quickly failed. They spent the rest of the day selling off. All the major averages closed low in their intraday trading ranges, showing little support as prices fell. The Nasd averages were the weakest due to selling in tech stocks. The COMPQ and the NDX fell 1.46% and 1.69% respectively. The SPX lost .67%. The worst losses were in semiconductor stocks with the SOX lower by 4.02%. Volume was close to yesterday’s levels. IBD said it was lower across the board. Esignal has it off by 1.74% on the Nasd but higher by 1.62% on the New York. That is close enough to get different results from different data feeds. Leading stocks were hit as well with the leaders index off by 1.45%. The index closed just above the midpoint of its trading range and volume was slightly higher and above average. This showed that large institutional players were selling quality growth stocks. The action of the market today reinforces the bear case. The market opened lower and closed weak. The charts of the major averages and the leaders index are looking a lot alike. They all broke above their 50dma resistance levels on higher volume, showing good action. They all quickly broke back below those important moving averages. They are all also declining below their short term moving averages, which are now providing the first level of resistance. We also had more new lows today than new highs. The market looks like it wants to go lower right now. It is a news driven market and an encouraging story on trade with China could spark a rally, but it looks like we will see lower prices ahead. Jerry