The market closed mixed today with the New York averages slightly while the Nasd averages were off a bit. After early weakness they recovered and closed near their intraday highs. Volume was lower across the board, so there was not much buying pressure by large players. Since we had a follow through on the COMPQ last week along with a move to new highs on the SPY I created a new leaders index. It contains 20 stocks in 16 different industry groups. This is slightly fewer stocks than are usually in an index but enough for a proper leaders index. It was harder to come up with enough stocks than it usually is. The index made a high on Thursday and after selling off a bit on Friday rallied .65% today, more than the overall market. The major averages seem to be doing better overall than quality growth stocks. While there have been breakouts and pocket pivots, few if any are producing really worth while gains. It remains a difficult market to make real progress, which is not unusual in late cycle rallies. Both the major averages and leading stocks seem at best to be drifting higher with out a lot of punch to them. While it is ok to be buying positions right now it is probably a good idea not to get to heavily invested as so many recent rally attempts have failed. Jerry
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