Leaders Index 1-2-19

The market opened 2020 with a bang. News of the Chinese government providing fresh stimulus to its economy triggered a rally in Europe and then here. The major averages opened strong and then spent most of the rest of the session holding those gains. Late buying came in and all the major averages closed at their intraday trading highs, a sign of support. The Nasd averages led the way with the COMPQ and the NDX gaining 1.33% and 1.57% respectively. The SPX rallied .84%. Semiconductor stocks were particularly strong with the SOX higher by 2.07%. Volume was higher across the board, gaining 35.41% on the Nasd and 25.30% on the New York. There was an easy comparison due to Tuesday being the day before the New Year holiday, but it was still solid volume. Leading stocks also did well with several stocks showing attractive breakouts. The leaders index lagged because a couple of its components were hit hard. It was higher by .17% and closed high in its trading range. It also held its 17dma. There are a fair number of components of the leaders index that have bad charts and with the major averages making new highs I think I will work on putting a new index together over the next few days. Other proxies for quality growth stocks did well. The FFTY was higher by 1.58%. The market produced a session on the first trading day of the year that left little to complain about. The major averages were strong all day and closed at their highs. Volume was higher, and even though it was an easy comparison, it showed that large institutional players were in a buying mood today. I recently said that the A’s minus E’s, which I use as a short term indicator, turned down and that there could be some short term weakness. We got two days of selling before the market started up again. The A’s minus E’s are also now very close to turning back up. The Summation Index slowed but never turned down. Today’s action was very good as the market was hitting on all cylinders. The rally looks solid and we should see higher prices. Jerry