Leaders Index 10-15-19

[Jerry Samet]

The market staged a strong rally today. The major averages opened higher and spent most of the remainder of the session rallying. All the major averages closed high in their intraday trading ranges, a sign of support. The Nasd averages led the way with the COMPQ and the NDX gaining 1.24% and 1.28% respectively. The SPX rallied 1.00%. Volume was higher across the board. Much of this was due to light holiday trading yesterday, but the 30.79% gain on the Nasd and the 34.81% gain on the New York were large. Leading stocks lagged the overall market today. The new leaders index was flat with a loss of .04% while the old index was higher by .87%. Both lagged by a wide margin. The index closed in the upper half of its trading range and volume was higher but below average. The market is certainly acting better right now. There were a couple of positive news stories that helped the market rally. There were encouraging comments on trade out of China, and maybe more importantly it looks like there might actually be a Brexit deal before the end of the month deadline. The market is acting better now and two shorter term items I look at, the Summation Index and the A’s minus E’s have turned up in the last couple of days. It looks like the market wants to make a run to its old highs. We will have to see if the major averages can break into new high ground, hopefully on volume. I will be away for a few days. The updates will resume next week. Jerry