Leaders Index 8-28-19

The market staged a positive reversal today after yesterday’s negative reversal. The major averages opened lower and built some decent losses early, but they bottomed out in the first few minutes and spent the rest of the session working their way higher. All the major averages closed at or very near their intraday trading highs, a positive sign. The New York averages were the strongest with the SPX gaining .65%. The COMPQ and the NDX rose .38% and .29% respectively. Volume was again the problem. It was lower across the board, falling 8.27% on the New York and 11.14% on the Nasd. Leading stocks were generally higher but the leaders index lagged the overall market. The index was up by .13%, but closed near the top of its trading range. It closed below the short term 9dma by a hair but held above its 17dma. Volume was lower and below average. This shows that there was not a lot of selling pressure in quality growth stocks. The market continued its recent pattern of declines on higher volume and rallies on lower volume. This is not a healthy volume signature. It shows an overall pattern of distribution. The reversal of early losses is good, but without some real conviction behind it the chances that it will turn into anything real on the up side is small. Overall I would say that there are more negatives than positives right now. At least it is a nice time of year to be at the beach. Jerry