After gapping higher at the open sellers took over the market sending stocks lower throughout much of the day. Fueling selling was another hiccup in the Treasury Auction as yields once again moved higher. Fears over the credit quality of the United States and inflation is sending Treasury holders to demand higher yields. Crude oil didn't help matters as the commodity hit $71 a barrell. In the face of this bad news buyers stepped up late and turned into what would have been a major distribution day into a minor distribution day. Once again, we are seeing underlying strength even when it appears the market is about to break to the downside.
Taking a look at New Highs vs New Lows only 8 New Lows were made on the NYSE and NASDAQ. More than 116 New Highs were made during today's session. The only way to view this is in a positive light. Remember, ultimately two things are needed: price/volume and leadership. New Highs vs. New Lows are simply a secondary piece of information that we can use to analyze the market. However, it will never trump the importance of leadership and price/volume action.
Today our quality growth stocks failed to get the same lift as the overall market did. Although the overall market action was positive the action from leaders was not as good. By no means is this a serious flaw or we the "SELL ALL SIGNAL" should be set it is something that should be noted. We need quality growth stocks leading the market and today was a sign that we may still have a few kinks in the armor to work out.
We are 13 weeks into this confirmed market rally and have seen junk-off-the-bottom (jotb) stocks lead this market higher. I continue to reiterate the 1938 market because it is highly correlated to the current market. It took over 3 months for leadership to emerge as leadership for the 1938 summer rally. In terms of the 1938 rally we are just in the early part of what potentially could be a nice rally continuing.
Remember to keep your losses short and your eye on the ball.