Leaders Index 6-19-18

We had another session of tariff roulette today. The market opened much lower on news of more tariffs on China. The major averages showed solid losses, but again bottomed out early and started to rally. They regained the better part of the early losses and all the major averages closed at or very near their intraday trading highs. It wasn’t enough to close in positive territory, except for the small caps, but the decline in the COMPQ was cut to .28% while the SPX lost .40%. Volume was higher across the board, producing fresh distribution days on all the major averages. Leading stocks were lower as well today with large tech stocks generally weaker. The leaders index fell .50% on the session, but closed high in its trading range. It held its short term 9dma support level and volume was very low, a good sign. For the third day in a row the market got hit early on trade war talk and recovered most of its losses. So far there has not been much real damage as the leaders index and all the major averages are above even their shortest term moving averages. If this continues one day the market may not recover. A couple of short term indicators I look at, like the A’s minus E’s and the Summation Index have flattened out. There well may be some consolidation for a bit, but unless this trade thing gets out of hand the rally likely isn’t over. Jerry