(By Rich Bieglmeier) Another ho hum day for volume, except this time stocks treaded water for the most part of Thursday. Apparently, investors wanted another day off prior to Friday's big Employment Situation Report.
Three job related reports were released on the 5th, and all of them point to the possibility of a better than expected number before the opening bell rings for the shortened week's final session.
The Challenger Announced Layoffs, ADP Jobs report, and jobless claims all topped expectations. Based on the day's good news, Goldman Sachs upped their guestimate 50k from 75,000 to 125,000 newly created jobs for June.
The consensus is for 90,000 new employees. So, if Goldman is correct, then we'll have a nice upside surprise to start Friday's trading day. It's the sort of news that could excite bulls enough to finish up a solid week of gains, which is commonplace for holiday weeks.
One more plus day and the NASDAQ, Dow, and S&P 500 will witness their 12 and 26 day averages bullishly crossing the respective 50-day average; which usually acts as a strong buy signal.
The NASDAQ will have some psychological and actual resistance at 3,000. The Dow could experience the same combo at 13,000, and 1390 could be the lid for the S&P 500. Just remember, in 2011, the indexes travelled a similar path. A May through June swoon before rallying within arm's length of the year's highs set in April. Oddly, April has been the high month for 2010 and 2011. Will 2012 be the same? iStock hopes not.
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