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<h2>Measuring bellwether leadership...</h2>
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<p>Historically, there are certain bellwether stocks, and even full sectors, that have characteristically led the broad market averages at major market tops. At different times over recent decades, these have included stocks like General Motors, IBM, JP Morgan and GE. Yet it is primarily three economically and monetarily sensitive sectors –Consumer Discretionary, Financials and Utilities– that have earned the right to be called true bellwethers.</p>
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<p>These segments of the market have a high sensitivity to the underlying economic conditions, which often causes them to lead the blue chip stock market averages at market tops and outperform coming out of market bottoms.  Watch for a negative divergence in this index versus the S&amp;P 500 as a sign of caution.</p>
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