Small Caps Lag the General Market as Stocks Close off the Highs of the Day

Small cap stocks lagged the general market by closing in the red with the major market averages close just barely in the green. Buyers stepped up their operations just after 10:30 am EST showing this market has support. However, buyers weren’t able to keep the market at its high of day closing off the best levels of the day. Volume rose across the board, but we failed to make significant gains. At this time, it appears the market continues to move sideways digesting last week’s gains. Our uptrend remains intact and we continue to expect this to continue. Housing data hit this morning was mixed, but existing home sales saw some promise. Homebuilders continue to be stellar as they come off their beaten down levels. Regardless of your opinion of the housing market homebuilders have had a heck of a run. Stocks like PHM and LEN continue to look like they want to move higher here. Of course anything and everything can happen, just look at QCOR today. What we know now is homebuilders continue to look like they are going to continue to move higher. We are still waiting for this market to push higher. We have plenty of leading stocks on the verge of running higher and it may take this market pushing higher to kick these in high gear. This week has been a good week for the market and very tight despite options expiry on Friday. Usually the week of expiry tends to be volatile and in high volume. So far so good in terms of volume and how tight this market is trading. Of course, we need the market to move higher at some point before we get too bored with it. In any event, this uptrend remains healthy. Keep pushing forward!