The market had a bit of a roller coaster session today. After opening a bit higher the market sold off then went on a nice rally and produced solid gains. In the last hour or so selling came in and most of the gains were lost. All the major averages closed near the bottom of their intraday trading ranges, not what you want to see. The Nasd averages finished higher with the COMPQ and the NDX gaining .15% and .33% respectively. The SPX was lower by .36%. Volume was lower across the board. It fell 9.64% on the Nasd and 24.23% on the New York. This means the major averages avoided a distribution day and that large institutional players were not heavy sellers of stocks today. Leading stocks followed the same pattern as the overall market, but closed with solid gains. The leaders index closed higher by .99% on the day. It closed low in its trading range but made new highs on both a closing and an intraday basis. The relative strength line of the leaders index also made a new high. The market looked like it would continue recent positive action but selling came in late and mostly changed that. You hate to see a late day reversal like we saw today, but the damage looks pretty small. The fact that there was much lower volume shows little selling pressure from large institutional players were not selling stocks. It also helps keep the distribution count low. The fact that leading stocks are acting better than the overall market is also encouraging. The market rarely get into serious trouble when quality growth stocks are outperforming. The late selling was disappointing, but the overall picture remains positive. Jerry
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