(By Rich Bieglmeier) It was another mild day of action yesterday. While the NASDAQ had a normal day of trading, the S&P and Dow experienced holiday like light volume. In our view, it means on of two things:
1. Nobody wants to sell because they believe prices are heading higher
2. buyers are waiting for the dip
Our technical take has not changed on the market; although profit taking is expected to follow a run, three indexes making highs at the same time remains a buy signal and confirms the uptrend.
iStock was somewhat surprised that stocks didn't make their way higher with Thursday's Jobless Claims registering 361,000 versus estimates of 367,000. In yesterday's stock market opening report, we nailed it calling for a "number closer to 360,000.
There is nothing on the economic table that we are watching today. Whichever direction stocks take to start the day is the direction they are likely to keep ending the week. Either way, iStock doesn't anticipate a day of much consequence.
Finally, our iEstimates correctly forecasted six of seven earnings surprises. The best of which was BroadSoft, Inc. (BSFT), jumping nearly $10 on its bullish beat – we wish they all could do that.
Here are next week's iEstimates and below you'll find a recap of the previous week.
| Company | Ticker | EPS Date | EPS | iEstimate | Surprise | % Surprise |
| Array Biopharma | ARRY | 8/13/12 | -$0.13 | -$0.12 | 0.01 | 7.69% |
| Cti Industries | CTIB | 8/13/12 | $0.09 | $0.10 | 0.01 | 11.11% |
| Interoil Corp | IOC | 8/13/12 | $0.06 | $0.09 | 0.03 | 50.00% |
| Dicks Sprtg Gds | DKS | 8/14/12 | $0.64 | $0.67 | 0.03 | 4.69% |
| Physicians Form | FACE | 8/14/12 | $0.04 | $0.05 | 0.01 | 25.00% |
| Citi Trends Inc | CTRN | 8/15/12 | -$0.44 | -$0.41 | 0.03 | 6.82% |
| China Distance | DL | 8/15/12 | $0.04 | $0.05 | 0.01 | 25.00% |
| Petsmart Inc | PETM | 8/15/12 | $0.65 | $0.66 | 0.01 | 1.54% |
| Xueda Educ-Adr | XUE | 8/15/12 | $0.15 | $0.17 | 0.02 | 13.33% |
| Stage Stores | SSI | 8/16/12 | $0.34 | $0.49 | 0.15 | 44.12% |
| Foot Locker Inc | FL | 8/16/12 | $0.32 | $0.35 | 0.03 | 9.38% |
Previous week's results:| Company | Ticker | Date | EPS | iEstimate | Surprise | % Surprise | Actual |
| Broadsoft Inc | BSFT | 8/6/2012 | 0.11 | $0.12 | $0.01 | 9.09% | 0.33 |
| United Fire Grp | UFCS | 8/6/2012 | 0.25 | $0.40 | $0.15 | 60.00% | 0.58 |
| Beacon Roofing | BECN | 8/7/2012 | 0.56 | $0.59 | $0.03 | 5.36% | 0.62 |
| Conn Water Svc | CTWS | 8/7/2012 | 0.41 | $0.42 | $0.01 | 2.44% | 0.48 |
| Disney Walt | DIS | 8/7/2012 | 0.93 | $0.94 | $0.01 | 1.08% | 1.02 |
| Lsb Inds Inc | LXU | 8/8/2012 | 0.88 | $0.92 | $0.04 | 4.55% | 1.11 |
| Walker & Dunlop | WD | 8/8/2012 | 0.49 | $0.50 | $0.01 | 2.04% | 0.42 |